Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza manage to thrill us in 80 minutes with a simple story and an already used “documentary” style, but still so powerful... [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 29, 2024

[Rec] proves to be an enjoyably jump-inducing ride into the horrific and panicky, moving so fast (in part due to the very short, barely-feature-length running time of 77 minutes) that it’s over seemingly in the same instant that it starts.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 18, 2023

It’s the moral imperative of the found-footage formalism that sets REC apart...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 28, 2022

The sheer impact of [REC] has never been replicated.

| Jan 4, 2021

Co-directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza unfold their story over a tight, tense 75 minutes, using the hand-held camera to create an atmosphere of immediacy, and never wasting an opportunity to ramp up the sense of panic, or provide a brutal scare.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 8, 2020

Don't come looking for subtlety or subtext - this offers wall-to-wall thrills and intensity, period.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 18, 2020

Lots of films get called "a rollercoaster ride" these days, but this is the first time I've really felt like I was in a carnival for most of the movie.

| Jan 23, 2020

With its quick pacing, brutal jump scares, and unpredictable ending, REC does an admirable job of modernizing the shambling ghouls introduced in George A. Romero's Living Dead series.

| Oct 22, 2019

A sterling effort in the eventually overplayed "found footage" genre.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 14, 2019

There wouldn't be much more to say if Spanish cinema didn't demonstrate a continued ability to reinvent the horror genre. REC, in this case, is a bad exception. [Full review in Spanish]

| Sep 6, 2017

. . .this film is a quick way to learn to treasure your peaceful quiet existence.

| Aug 22, 2017

The Spanish horror movie Rec promises, in the first act at least, to be a profoundly disturbing experience.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 29, 2015

[Rec] sets out to terrify and it succeeds nicely.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 29, 2015

If you're going to a horror movie, it's because you want to be scared senseless. In this regard, they don't come better than [REC].

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 29, 2015

Midway through, the plot blows a gasket and the camerawork turns altogether crazed, joggling us about in the semi-darkness while the soundtrack rings to distorted screams.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 29, 2015

The film corners you with the ferocity of a Spanish inquisitor with a branding iron and holds you there to the bitter end.

| Sep 29, 2015

Quick and to the point when it comes to delivering scares.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 14, 2012

Superbly acted, brilliantly directed and absolutely bloody terrifying, this is one of the best films of the year.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 14, 2010

Directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, rising stars in the Spanish horror scene, create a buzzing urgency in a familiar premise...

| Jul 13, 2009

Not since John Carpenter's one-shot intro to Halloween has POV horror been this good.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 29, 2009