History Film / REC

''[REC]'' (2007) is a [[SpanishFilms Spanish]] horror film following a news reporter, Ángela Vidal, and her cameraman, Pablo, as they cover the night shift in one of Barcelona's local fire stations for the fictional documentary series ''While You Sleep''. However, the two intrepid reporters get much more than they bargained for when the firehouse receives a call from a residential building about an old woman being unwell and trapped in her own apartment. As they tag along with the rescue effort, Ángela and Pablo find themselves chronicling the discovery and progression of an apparent zombie outbreak in the building, which is sealed off by the authorities, trapping everyone inside. Soon they are forced to fight for their lives, as TheVirus slowly takes over the tenants and responders.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler:For poor Mari. Not only for her child Jennifer to be revealed to be infected, but also end up being cuffed to a banister due to her hysterical reactions after the revelation. Which becomes even worse for her when Sergio ends up becoming infected, because he had the keys to her handcuffs. This leaves her stuck and renders her screaming for help for her fellow survivors. Making her an easy victim for the infected.]]
** That said, she was quite likely already infected even before she was cuffed to the railing, given [[spoiler: that the infection spreads through saliva, and her infected daughter had just spat blood in her face before running upstairs.]]

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: This movie differed significantly from the formula associated with the saga so far. At first it seems like it's gonna be a [[FoundFootageFilms found-footage film]] like the other movies, but at the end of the first act the camera gets smashed and then it jumps to a traditional style of filming. Besides, no main characters from the first two movies appear on the third. Lastly, it has more parodic elements; it is more of a dark comedy than a horror film at times.
* TitleDrop / NonIndicativeName: While the subtitle ''Genesis'' makes you think it's an OriginStory for the series (as films with those titles regularly do), in this case it is that the passage of Literature/TheBible that the priest reads over the PA system to keep the zombies at bay is the Book of Genesis.

* IllGirl: Jennifer. At first it's thought she has tonsillitis, but it quickly becomes clear that she's infected with the virus.

* RaisingTheSteaks: Happens offscreen. But in the exposition dump provided by the Health Inspector. A dog whom was sent to the vet because he seemed sick. Ended up going violent and attacked all the other animals, soon they began to to turn violent as well before the whole situation was finally quarantined. Said dog just happened to be Jennifer's dog Max. Soon most of the other survivors looked on at the IllChild, realizing what that means...

* BaldOfAwesome: Manu the firefighter, a BoisterousBruiser who's definitely the most useful character of the first ''REC'' movie. He kills more of the infected than anyone else in self-defence, manages to stand on equal authority with the policeman, and [[spoiler: helped Ángela with Pablo get away from the mob with one last strong resistance.]]

* HatePlague
* LostInTranslation: No dubs, subs, nor the remake make justice to the abundant, often colorful Spanish swearing.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: A rare pre-story case. The Church was searching for a medical cure for demonic possession. They were able to find the enzyme which caused demonic possession. Unfortunately, it mutated and spread. Now instead of a demon taking over one person, the demon can take over everybody who is infected.]]

* NotUsingTheZWord: The Zombies are never acknowledged as such, even though it's acknowledged the fact that it's a virus.

->''"Pablo tape everything. For your fucking mother's sake."''

** Ángela in the climax. Instead of using those things attached to either side of her torso ([[spoiler: i.e, her arms]]) she just lies still passively as the [[spoiler: Medeiros girl possesses her.]]

* LittlestCancerPatient: Averted.

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler: The last part of the film has Pablo and Angela trying to sneak past the Medeiros girl - in a crowded apartment they're unfamiliar with, in pitch darkness. ''Of course'' they bump into something and make enough noise to get themselves killed.]]

* OhCrap: Ángela, when she makes the connection between Jennifer's story of her sick dog, Max, and the health inspector's story about the infected dog who became violent...

* {{Foreshadowing}}: So much in the staring fire station sequence.

* JumpScare: Several.
** Especially notable is Jennifer suddenly biting her mother in the face (especially jarring since it comes out of the blue), followed by her later attacking the policeman.
** Then there's the boy in the attic...
** [[invoked]] The scene where Alex suddenly thuds into the floor after falling from several floors. [[EnforcedMethodActing Not even the actors knew that this was going to happen]].
** Jennifer's mother. Following her death, her corpse is shown lying on the ground as Ángela and Manu search the mailboxes... and when Pablo pans back around, she's suddenly standing up...

* DeadLineNews

** Pablo Rosso, the film's cinematographer, "plays" the cameraman. Call it next level CastTheExpert.

* TechnicallyLivingZombie

** The multi-tool Atun accidentally drops down the sewer.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: This movie differed significantly from the formula associated with the saga so far. [[spoiler: At first it seems like it's gonna be a [[FoundFootageFilms found-footage film]] like the other movies, but at the end of the first act the camera gets smashed and then it jumps to a traditional style of filming. Besides, no main characters from the first two movies appear on the third. Lastly, it has more parodic elements; it is more of a dark comedy than a horror film at times.]]

->''"Pablo tape everything. For fuck's sake."''
-->--'''Ángela'''

* JustForFun/XMeetsY: Upon release, the first film was often summarized as "''Videogame/ResidentEvil'' in ''Series/AquiNoHayQuienViva'''s building." Other common comparisons are ''España Directo'' (a Spanish doc-style reality show of the time), ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'' (because of the fast zombies and End of Times allusions), ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' (blood-eyed crazy infected), and ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'' (found footage horror). ''[REC]2'' brought additional comparisons to ''Videogame/{{Doom}}'' (because of the FirstPersonShooter perspective and demon enemies) and ''Film/TheExorcist'' (because of the exorcism and puking infected scenes), and ''[REC]3'' to ''Franchise/EvilDead'' (because of the upped BlackComedy and over the top violence on zombies being PlayedForLaughs).

* LighterAndSofter: While the first two films were strict survival horror, ''REC 3'' added elements of romance drama due to Clara and Koldo's relationship and motivations. The film's use of traditional cinematography and the fact that the film actually had a musical score contributed to this trope.
** Genesis also features significantly more humor than the previous two films (which had none), although it is still dark overall.

''[REC]'' (2007) is a [[SpanishFilms Spanish]] horror film following a news reporter, Ángela Vidal, and her cameraman, Pablo, as they cover the night shift in one of Barcelona's local fire stations for the fictional documentary ''While You Sleep''. However, the two intrepid reporters get much more than they bargained for when the firehouse receives a call from an apartment building about a woman who is trapped. As they tag along with the rescue effort, Ángela and Pablo find themselves chronicling the discovery and progression of an apparent zombie outbreak in the apartment building, which forces the police and military to seal off the building, trapping everyone inside. Soon they are forced to fight for their lives, as the virus slowly takes over the residents and firemen around them.

In 2008, the first ''[REC]'' was [[ForeignRemake remade in America]] as ''Film/{{Quarantine}}''. In 2009 a sequel, ''[REC] 2'', was released. The third film, called ''[REC] 3: Génesis'' takes place at roughly the same time as the events of the first two films are happening, and the fourth and final film, ''[REC] Apocalipsis'', concludes the saga with the infection spreading to unknown proportions; the film was released in Spain on October 31, 2014.

!! Films in this series:
* ''[REC]'' (2007)
* ''[REC] 2'' (2009)
* ''[REC] 3: Génesis'' (2011)
* ''[REC] 4: Apocalypse'' (2014)

** Pablo's face is never shown.

* CastingGag: Manuela Velasco (Ángela) was best known in her native Spain as "[[CastingGag that silly Canal+ TV presenter]]" before this movie. Americans, picture Maria Menounos starring in a film like this.

* InfantImmortality: [[spoiler:Averted. At first it seems like the children at the wedding are gonna get away in a bus parked outside the reception. Unfortunately, the infected get inside the bus...]]

* InfantImmortality: Very much averted. Not only are [[spoiler:several infected young boys]] lurking in the penthouse attic (with one of them getting his head blown apart in the second film), Jennifer also gets infected [[spoiler:and is (presumably) killed off-camera in the second film.]]