Rec 3: Genesis (2012)
I am a huge fan of the first 2 Rec films. The zombie sub-genre is absolutely stacked and it takes some great films to garner attention and stand head(shots) and shoulders above their counterparts. The first is a claustrophobic and nerve wrought assault on the senses for 80 minutes, with the second marginally overlapping into the same time-span. The ending of the second was incredibly brutal and gave me high hopes for the 3rd entry.
Alas, the 3rd is just about perfect. Perfect, that is, as an example of a HUGE opportunity missed by the writers and director. They set up some potentially great moments and then bailed on each and every one of them.
After 20 minutes, they do away with the POV gimmick from the preceding films - which the second one continued brilliantly with the helmet cam idea I should add - and revert to a standard cinematic set-up instead. But hey, that's how Romero filmed his original groundlaying trilogy so thats not really a big concern... except when the series is named after the recording function of an on-site camera.
To tie in with it being the 3rd entry, I will limit myself to 3 of the worst wasted opportunities;
1 - A Suit of Armour. Think about this, how many zombie films have had the stones and ability to don their hero in a suit of armour? Yes he'll be slow-moving and clumsy, but he'll be all but immune from their bites and if one does try to bite, you have a money shot of a special effects trick to portray teeth breaking out of the zombies face and falling uselessly to the floor.
So what does Rec 3 do? The groom dresses up in the armour then does his best to avoid zombies. A fucking waste.
2 - Sponge John. A recurring joke in the film is an entertainer at the wedding reception dressed up to resemble Sponge Bob but as he can't get clearance to use the name he keeps telling people that he's Sponge John. It's ridiculous but amusing. He provides a jolt to a couple of characters in human form but doesn't appear again as a zombie. A zombie Sponge John!? Why NOT do something with that!?
3 - Actually killing some fucking zombies. Call me a gore-hound, but a zombie film's entertainment (or at least some of it) comes from inventive ways of cutting down zed heads and seeing characters start to let loose on their unapologetic killing sprees; think the blonde army character in Dawn of the Dead.
There is one inventive death and a couple somewhat cool ones, but if this is the zombie film with the lowest zombie death count then it wouldn't at all surprise me.
All in all it was alright and had a few good moments, but the longer the film goes on the more the frustration builds at how flippantly characters die without much retribution from the survivors. The ending is pretty terrible too.
3/10
