The first [REC] is one of the best horror films to come out in the past few years. I was completely unprepared the first time I watched it and, as a result, terrified. I couldn't look out my windows, I didn't want to sleep. It was so well done, so perfectly claustrophobic and realistic that I couldn't turn off that little panic switch in my head.
Before seeing it for myself, I had heard that REC 3 was not like the other two films that came before it, but wanted to give it a chance. Unfortunately the person who told me that was right, it's a different zombie movie altogether.
The found footage style is abandoned early on, which I think was a big mistake. It was essential to the success of the other two films, and changing to a feature film style changed the atmosphere. Furthermore, while it's sweet to center the carnage around newlyweds desperate to find their spouse before they try to escape, it came off a little sappy for me.
The film also became heavily religious, much more so than the previous films. It was suggested in the first one that the zombies resulted from a possession, and the second movie went more into detail about that. But here in the third entry I felt they were being heavy-handed about it, which put me off. Is this what they had in mind all along, I wonder?
I'll give REC 3 a few things: they had more creative kills, some bad-ass imagery and lots of blood and gore. If you can watch it as a completely separate film having nothing to do with the first two, that alone may be worth it. Knowledge of the back story is not necessary here, as the third film is thinly linked, at best. If you loved the other two films I wouldn't go out of my way to see REC 3, but you may want to judge for yourself. Just be prepared for something very different.
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