“REC” is the film on which the U.S. movie Quarantine was based. I never saw REC, but did see Quarantine. REC 2 picks up immediately (like about thirty seconds) after the end of REC, Halloween 2 style. From what I can see, there is about zero meaningful difference between REC and Quarantine because everything was as I remembered it from the American remake.
We pick up with a SWAT team and “Ministry of Health” official entering the cordoned building which, as we know from REC 1/Quarantine, is full of “fast zombie” victims of some unknown plague. The big twist (stop reading if you don’t like spoilers) here is that the “official” is really a priest and the plague, though spread like a normal blood/fluid zombie thing, is a demonic infestation. The Vatican got a hold of a possessed girl and decided to do scientific experiments on her to find an “antidote.” And thus the killing begins. Some of the original cast return, and some more hapless camera-loving kids wander in to provide more points of view (as the core conceit is that everything in the film was captured on one real camera or another – the reporter’s camera from the first movie, the SWAT team’s helmet cams, and the kids’ camcorder).
REC 2 was entertaining enough, and well done. Nothing to gush over, but it’s definitely a sequel that’s as good as the original, so if you liked Quarantine you’ll like this.
I have always found the fast zombie concept annoying. I prefer my zombies slow and plodding. I see zombies as representing the inevitability of death. Sure you can out run them, heck you can probably out *walk* them. But they will never tire. Never rest. They will *never* give up until you are one of them. *That* is horror. Fast zombies are just shock tools. Shock is not the same as horror.
The church angle sounds pretty interesting, I’ve always wanted to see a zombie movie with a priest who uses turn undead and other divine means rather than a shotgun.
Yeah, this definitely has a bit of the “exorcist” style action going on. The priest can’t “turn” them in a melee but his various rituals actually work – causes infected blood to burst into flame; he seals a zombie in a room by tacking a rosary to the door, etc.