[REC] 3: Genesis – Review

Welcome to Clara (Dolera) and Koldo’s (Martín) wedding video, and a new take on the same horrific problems of the first two films. A love story kicks off the opening, with a sappy song accompanying pictures of the bride and groom growing up. Wonderful.

This sequel does begin in similar territory and form with the camera’s point of view, as filmers Adrián (Monner) and Atún (Santaolalla), who has a Steadicam device, document the wedding and talk to guests. While it is not the main event yet, the bride and groom have family and friends conversing, and a third camera briefly enters the mix, as friend Tita films a pensive Clara.

Outside, Tío Pepe Víctor has a “dog bite” that is well bandaged. Finally, the bride is on the way, and it’s time for the people to gather inside the venue. Clara is led down the aisle and Koldo happily agrees to marry her and sings her a jingle. Woo-hoo.

This happy couple is about to have a hell of a wedding party. Err, wedding party of hell actually. While the reception gets going, so does some kind of virus, which loves to spread. What chance does everyone have? How much blood and guts does it take to truly ruin a wedding reception? My answer is one guts. That’s all it takes.

[REC] 3 is a shift from 1 and 2, both in terms of claustrophobic terror, and in camera point of view. Eventually, this movie shifts to a traditional filming style and ditches the strict “found footage” vibe. The time it swaps makes sense, and it does attempt to keep the idea going. I would say the film doesn’t lose much by swapping styles partway, but not a lot is gained either.

I enjoy some of [REC] 3 just fine. It is an okay story shift and interesting setting for disaster. The film does more of a dark comedy thing, and still includes heightened gore, however it is less creepy and not as full of pulse pounding terrors. This results in a different feel all around by the end compared to the first couple parts.

It does not really build on the story of the others and instead opts to be almost more of a companion piece by showing the same issues just elsewhere and with different characters. There are some brief, yet direct, connections to the first films however.

The movie does get weirder and weirder as it goes, and by the end I was not too sure about all of the choices made. The film looks great, and is stylistically shot. The cast does a good job with the tonally-challenged material, hitting both scary and wacky spectrum at times. This one definitely deviates in vibe from parts 1, 2 and 4. It is directed by one of the two directors of the first two films, with the other director completing part 4.

If there is a moral here, it is don’t fuck with a bride, if you are zombie, or otherwise.

I find this hard to score, some of it isn’t that bad at all and is kinda fun, and some of it was a miss for me.