REC

[🔴REC] is a Spanish found-footage survival horror co-directed and co-written by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, produced by Julio Fernández, and co-written by Balagueró, Plaza and Luis A. Berdejo. The film stars Manuela Velasco, Ferrán Terraza, Jorge-Yamam Serrano, Pablo Rosso, David Vert, Vicente Gil, Martha Carbonell and Carlos Vicente.

It was released on November 23, 2007, to widespread acclaim and spawning a tetralogy.

Plot
Television reporter Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman Pablo (Pablo Rosso) follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The premise of a television crew being caught up in a zombie outbreak with only the camera as proof of what happened was very unique at the time and has been replicated only a few times.
 * 2) The movie's trailer did a good job at hiding its premise really well, disguising itself as a firefighting procedural film before revealing itself to be a horror movie.
 * 3) The movie's setting is good as it's set and filmed in a Spanish apartment building, adding to the claustrophobia.
 * 4) Lots of memorable and unscripted moments and jumpscares like Alex, one of the firefighters, getting thrown over the stairs and faceplanting really hard onto the ground and Jennifer suddenly spitting infected blood into her mother Mari Carmen's face
 * 5) Great casting in the form of Manuela Velasco as Ángela Vidal
 * 6) * In fact, the movie's creators and directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza went out of their way to make the movie as realistic as possible by hiring an actual TV presenter to play Ángela and having actual firefighters play as extras in their actual fire station in the movie's opening act.
 * 7) The movie has a nice and subtle expositionary backstory that wasn't overdone and reveals the zombie outbreak's true origin.
 * 8) The ending is extremely scary.
 * 9) It spawned a good tetralogy that died out in 2014.
 * 10) A nice plot twist that was only revealed near the end of the movie.
 * 11) The movie was so good it even inspired Outlast's premise and gameplay.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It spawned an awful American rip-off in the form of mh:awfulmovies:Quarantine.
 * 2) It is really short, being 75 minutes long.
 * 3) Due to it's nature as a found-footage film, there are a few moments when the camera shakes too much and it's difficult for the viewer to realize what is happening.

Reception
[🔴REC] got mostly positive reviews from critics and audiences alike.

On Metacritic, the movie has a critic rating of 69/100 and a user score of 7.7/10 ("generally favourable reviews").

Time Out gave the movie a 4/5, praising its camerawork, plot and plot twist.

Empire gave the movie a 3/5, praising its premise and plot while criticizing its short length.