REC 4: Apocalypse (2015)

"This is game over, gentlemen."

-Dr. Ricarte

Picking up just after the second film ends, REC 4: Apocalypse follows a team of Army Special Forces soldiers that enter the apartment with the objective to blow it up.  Two of the team members, Guzmán (Paco Manzanedo) and Lucas (Críspulo Cabezas) manage to make it out alive along with reporter, Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco).  The three of them are taken to a medical center and research facility located on a ship out at sea, as is Anciana (María Alfonsa Rosso), an older woman and the only survivor of the wedding from the 3rd film.  After they are tested and cleared from the infection, they learn that the doctors running the operation are testing vaccinations to cure the infection on monkeys, but one of the monkeys is set free by someone onboard.  Is it Ángela, who last we saw was possessed by the same spirit that caused the infections, or is someone else now the host?

What Works:

REC 4 returns to the same tone the first two movies had.  The story is played completely straight.  The jokes are few and far between.  This movie focuses more on the horror and terror of the situation, which I appreciate.  It's not that I don't like horror-comedies, it's just that I'd like the tone to be consistent throughout the series and it's nice to see the filmmakers take a step back here.

The characters are better developed here than in the previous film.  It helps that we have Ángela back again, but the soldiers are both pretty likable, and although the radio officer, Nick (Ismael Fritschi) is a bit of a perv, he has a nice character arc.  It's also cool to have a character from the third film appear in this one.  It's a nice way to tie the series together.

There are a few really awesome sequences, the best of which involves Ángela and Nick using a boat propeller to kill a few zombie-monkeys.  It's an awesome scene and caught me off guard.  The gore is excellent throughout the film, but the highpoint is easily the boat propeller kills.

Like the previous film, this movie ditches the found-footage format pretty much entirely, but I didn't mind it so much.  We still get a few moments of found-footage due to security cameras being a major plot point, but the footage captured from the first two films is also extremely important to the story.  The point it, it still makes sense to call this movie REC, which can't really be said about the 3rd film.

What Sucks:

The CGI zombie-monkeys I mentioned above, while fun, don't look great.  The CGI effects in this movie in general feel very cheap and the practical effects are far superior.

I found the character of Captain Ortega (Mariano Venacio) to be very annoying.  His only character trait was that this was his last voyage and he was going to retire when he got home.  He mentions this three times.  We get it, dude!  You don't have to keep reminding us.  Mention it once and leave it at that.

Finally, the 3rd act ship escape annoyed me due to Ángela.  She was scared to death of jumping into the water.  It wasn't that high up and there was a life raft already down there waiting for her.  Her terror felt overly drawn out to generate artificial suspense.  This happens again when suddenly she vanishes under the water and Nick can't find her.  Once again, it just felt fake.  Let the suspense happen naturally, otherwise it comes off as insincere.

Verdict:

REC 4: Apocalypse is probably my least favorite of the series, but I still enjoyed it.  I like that the tone was strictly focused on the horror, the inclusion of characters from every previous film was cool, the boat propeller kills were fantastic, and it actually felt like a REC movie even without the found footage.  The CGI wasn't great, there was one annoying character, and the tension felt forced in the 3rd act, but it was a solid conclusion to the series which still has got it going on.

 7/10: Good