[Rec] 3: Génesis
Directed by Paco Plaza
The [Rec] series’ strength has always been form, not content—its camcorder claustrophobia, not its demon-virus mythology. But this prequel is formally conventional: after 20 minutes of a wedding ceremony and reception shot on handheld devices, the movie drops its signature aesthetic for an omniscient POV.
Within the first reel, Koldo (Diego Martin) and Clara (Leticia Dolera) are married, but the celebration soon turns hellish when an uncle, who’d been bit by a dog, goes rabid, tearing at guests’ throats with his teeth. The virus quickly spreads, infecting revelers who attack the uninfected, turning the party into a contest for survival as separated packs of the uncontaminated try to reunite within the sprawling grounds of the estate.
Essentially, [Rec] 3 is just another ho-hum (but gory!) zombie movie, like the ones George Romero keeps churning out—but one in which the monsters react like vampires to churches and holy water, like exorciseable demons to recited psalms. Part three’s as Catholic as the previous entry, in which the virus was a metaphor for modernity’s contagious godlessness. You could easily read the outbreak here as a metaphor for the evil unleashed by a woman who’s already pregnant on her wedding day.
Opens September 7