[REC]²

REC 2 (2009) begins at the exact minute the first film ended. A police tactical unit enters the building with a man said to be from the Ministry of Health. He is in fact a priest, and what he is looking for is not a virus. This is the series' bravest decision. The first film framed the outbreak as a medical event; the second redefines the same event through religion, and the genre changes halfway. That choice split its audience. Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró directed together again. It is found footage again, this time using cameras mounted on the unit's helmets, so there are multiple points of view and the edit can move between them. Its best technical idea is the night vision sequence. In the dark only the camera can see, and the characters advance by watching the screen; the audience and the characters hold the same limited information at the same moment. Like the first, it was made in Spain, and the series ran to four films. It runs 84 minutes. Good for: found footage horror, tension in enclosed spaces, and continuing the series. Less good for: the religious explanation withdraws the realism of the first film and many viewers count that as a loss. The shaking camera is relentless and can be physically uncomfortable. The characters are hard to tell apart.