20: Rec 2

Found footage films are a dime a dozen these days. Ever since The Blair Witch Project, any film trying to be “realistic” had one faceless character with almost no dialogue holding the film's only camera. No tripods exist in the world of found footage films. It takes a lot for one of these films to get noticed, and even more for them to be remembered. The 2006 film Rec was one of the good ones, and you can expect to see it somewhere on this list in the future. Rec 2 takes the strengths of the original (great pacing and perhaps the best jump scares in jump scare history.), and turns it up to 11. They try to make everything bigger, faster, and stronger. And it works. Rec 2 was so good that it has not one but two sequels currently in production.

Rec 2 takes place almost immediately after the end of the original, and follows a swat team as they enter an apartment full of zombies. But these aren't your normal zombies: In Rec 2, the infected are possessed by demons. They can be warded off by crosses and good old fashioned gunfire, but they will just keep coming unless the original host is found and destroyed. The Swat team needs to find and kill the host, while securing a blood sample for testing.

The film's strongest aspect is this unique zombie mythology, which allows for a lot of very impressive scenes that couldn't have happened in a more traditional zombie movie. From the point where one of the main characters reveals being sent by the Vatican to try and stop this infection, you know it is going to be something different. They milk this for all its worth. All of the zombies are controlled by a single entity, and it has a few tricks up its sleeve for people who think they are only facing rabid humans. The final act in particular is both novel and terrifying.

There is a cost to this greater ambition, however. While the original Rec felt perfect with only the one camera, the sequel really struggles against the limits it sets on itself. Each of the main characters has a camera on their weapon now, and that still doesn't feel like enough. When the second act rolls around, the film screeches to a halt in a really unnatural fashion, which almost certainly could've been avoided had the two talented directors not had to accommodate the found footage style of real-time filmmaking with no cutting between multiple viewpoints. All in all, I'm thankful the next Rec Sequel uses a more traditional style of filmmaking.

Rec 2 is often thought of as the Aliens to Rec's Alien, but I don't agree with this. Even if it were just an excellent action film sequel,, it would be worth watching. It is more than that. The last half hour of Rec 2 is just as good as anything in Rec. It has all the adrenaline and fun of an action film, but it still manages to stick with you when you are trying to get to sleep at night in a way no action movie can. Rec 2 is a horror film, and one of the best.