[REC]

"Experience fear."

2007 1h 18m ES

👍

7.2

SOLID

🔥

90%

CERTIFIED FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.4

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 5,040🍅90%Rotten Tomatoes●71Metacritic★7.4IMDB · 211,224

HorrorMystery

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.

“Experience fear.”

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Cast

Manuela Velasco
Ángela Vidal
Pablo Rosso
Pablo
Javier Coromina
Pablo (voice)
Ferrán Terraza
Manu
Martha Carbonell
Mrs. Izquierdo
David Vert
Álex
Carlos Lasarte
César
Vicente Gil
Old Police Officer

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jaume Balagueró
Writers: Paco Plaza, Jaume Balagueró, Luiso Berdejo
Languages: Japanese, Spanish
Countries: Spain

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 78-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $33M — a 21.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 19 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Japanese, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "[REC] Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jaume Balagueró, shot by Pablo Rosso. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor David Gallart shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jaume Balagueró directs. Pablo Rosso behind the camera. David Gallart cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Spain. Dialogue in Japanese, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 78-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
2Shot for just $1.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Grossed $33M — a 21.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
4Released 19 years ago.
5Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Japanese, Spanish.
6Part of the "[REC] Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
7Directed by Jaume Balagueró, shot by Pablo Rosso. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Editor David Gallart shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Manuela Velasco and Pablo Rosso and Javier Coromina carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "Experience fear.".
11IMDB entry: tt1038988 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 17 themes, including "obsession", "bite", "religion and supernatural", "attempt to escape".

The technical file

Cinematography: Pablo Rosso
Editing: David Gallart
Production design: Gemma Fauría
Costume design: Glòria Viguer
Makeup / hair: Isabel Duque
VFX supervisor: Àlex Villagrasa
Sound: Marc Orts
Stunt coordinator: José Ignacio Álvarez
Runtime: 78 min · 1h 18m
Status: Released
Budget: $1,500,000
Box office: $32,511,655
Return: 2167% of budget
Original language: ES
Certification (US): R
IMDB: [REC] (2007)
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 71/100
IMDB rating: 7.4/10 · 211,224 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

16 wins & 12 nominations total

Ignotus Award for Best Audiovisual Production

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

[REC] Collection

Spanish horror film series created by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, consisting of four movies. The films center around a viral demonic possession originated by a young girl named Tristana Medeiros who was sexually assaulted by a group of priests. The first two movies are presented in a found footage format, although the last two installments have ventured into traditional cinematography. The series has received high critical acclaim worldwide.

Also by

Jaume Balagueró

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

The Movie Mob2022-11-05
★ 8/10
REC is zombie horror brilliance! REC is one of the best found-footage and zombie movies ever made. The panic, chaos, and terror that grows and spreads through a small apartment building as residents fall one by one to a zombie plague is overwhelmingly suspenseful and believable. REC starts slow but exponentially builds into a bloodcurdling frenzy with horrified characters frantically struggling to survive. This low-budget horror film belongs in the hall of fame for creativity and genius in the genre. I saw the American remake, Quarantine, many years ago, which is very similar to this film, but REC edges Quarantine with originality and a franchise of 3 other films following it. Any zombie or horror fan needs to add this to their watchlist immediately!
CinemaSerf2024-05-15
★ 6/10
"Ángela" (Manuela Velasco) is a pushy television reporter who is with her cameraman "Pablo" (Pablo Rosso) doing a feature about some local hunky firemen. When they are called to an emergency, they accompany the crews but upon arrival the find themselves subject to a terrifying lock-in as the raging fire proves not to be their most imminent danger. It seems that there is also something afoot that is hungry, and that hunger breeds more hunger... It's filmed from the perspective of the camera and has a lot of "Blair Witch" (1999) to it - and that's where I lost interest. The intensity of the photography in the dark and winding corridors of this expansive apartment block works quite well for about ten minutes, thereafter the hysterical acting, constant screaming and overdoses of ketchup just made me think that they hadn't the budget or the imagination to make something different or memorable. If Velasco's plan was to make the audience dislike her character intensely then she hit the nail on the head and if I'd been one of the fire crew trying to save lives amidst her increasingly annoying histrionics, I'd have happily sacrificed her to their tormentors. It doesn't hang about, but even at just eighty minutes I was weary of it's repetition. Not for me, sorry.