"All is clear."

"[Rec] 2"

Directors Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró made an indelible imprint on the international horror landscape with their little seen but much revered Spanish thriller [Rec]. As the difficult to communicate title may suggest, [Rec] depicted its subject - a terrifying virus infecting one very unlucky apartment building - in a first-person hand held camera style. It managed to do right what other films employing the device got so wrong. Plaza and Balagueró used a real location, very believable practical effects, and a visceral sound design to create a film whose space, characters, and monsters seemed all too real. The duo also mastered the art of utilizing negative space. [Rec] is all about not being able to see what is directly to the right or to the left and the deep rooted fear that when the camera finally does turn, you will not like what you see.

[Rec] 2 picks up almost instantly from the end of the first film and proceeds uniquely as a continuation rather than a new scenario or loosely related second series of events. Jonathan Mellor stars as Dr. Owen, a supposed Ministry of Health employee leading a SWAT team on an investigation of the infected space just moments after what we last saw at the end of [Rec]. Part of the beauty of [Rec] 2 is the brutal echo of [Rec] at almost every turn. Its novel in a horror series to walk back into the same space where we have previously witnessed so much carnage. These new characters see just a blood splatter while fans of [Rec] are reliving the terrified memory of their experience watching the first film. In a genius early moment, the directors recreate a specific scare from the first film: a 360 degree turn in a tight crawl space. They know very well viewers of [Rec] 2 expect to find the same shock at the completion of the turn that they did last time around. Instead there is nothing. "All is clear." For now.

Ultimately, [Rec] 2 does not quite equal its predecessor. [Rec] was such a shock of a film, perfectly calibrated in its gradual escalation of terror and increasing sense of claustrophobia. In its final scene, we feel the most nervous and the most trapped. It did not just create terror but funneled it into an unbelievably precise journey into fear. [Rec] 2 is perhaps as scary. Certainly, it stands high above its horror genre peers in genuine scares. However, it is not as neatly developed as [Rec]. Moreover, it lacks the sense of the unknown which made the first film so unnerving. In [Rec], we knew nothing of what was happening. We were unfamiliar with the space, the rules of the infection, or its cause. The mere suggestion near the end of the film that this pertained to a religious conspiracy and could indeed be demonic (or perhaps was misconstrued as such by a mad priest) packed a wallop as far as terror goes. [Rec] 2, in disappointing horror sequel tradition, gives too sound an answer to the questions raised in the first film. We are told exactly what is happening, how, and why. Without the mystery it is simply not as scary. The flow is also confounded by characters who behave just a bit less intelligently than last time, including the infected ones. I know a bigger budget means more obvious effects and bloodier fights. Nonetheless, can anyone explain to me why the infected here have a precarious need to chew the camera lens rather than the bodies of their victims?

It was probably too much to expect [Rec] 2 to surpass or equal [Rec]. As horror sequels go, though, this has got to be one of the strongest. It continues the legacy of the original quite well and without doing much, if any, damage to its legacy. Most importantly, it is a damn good horror film in its own right, albeit entirely dependent on information from the first film. If the upcoming prequel, [Rec]:Genesis, and sequel, [Rec]: Apocalypse, can retain the true horror and smart style of these first two films, we may just be looking at the rare horror franchise for which sequels are considered essential viewing rather than unwanted exploitations.

Ivan is disappointed but still smiles.