Ever watched a film and got the distinct impression, you'd seen it somewhere before?
This 2008 US horror film concerns a TV film crew, who are following the LA fire department around as part of documentary they’re shooting, when they get called
to an apartment block, to help the police break into one of the flats.
Believing the old lady within to be injured and unable to open the door, the break in only to find her suffering from some sort of rabies like virus, and in no mood to be rescued, as she proceeds to attack the emergency crews trying to help her.
But when they try to leave the building and call for backup, they find that the authorities have sealed the doors and placed the building under quarantine, with national guard soldiers and hazmat teams preventing anyone from entering or leaving.
With the rabies like virus spreading throughout the building, turning the infected into blood thirsty killers, the surviving firemen, police officers and tenants find themselves fighting a battle for survival, as the documentary team captures all the shocking events on their cameras.
Now if all this sounds familiar, that's because this was a virtual shot-for-shot remake of the 2007 Spanish horror film [REC], with Jennifer Carpenter (from TV's Dexter) and Jay Hernandez (of Hostel fame) in the lead roles.
As with [REC], the film is shot from a 'first-person perspective' (Blair Witch style) using the footage from the film crews camera, and viewed on its own merits, is quite an entertaining zombie film. However, fans of the original [REC] may consider this as an uneccesary rehash.
On a pure entertainment level, I really enjoyed this and is definitely one I'd recommend to zombie film fans. Though I would also suggest picking up [REC] as a companion piece.
