207: REC (2007)

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Prosthetic little saggy tits. Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hackerslash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. It's nearly 2 a.m. and we're still sealed in this building. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Hola muchachos, the Gore Lover Alexis.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

She has tonsillitis, the cowardly creeper Ryan, hola, and the scream queen Paris. Tranquila. The people have spoken this week, and our patrons have decided we're checking out a Spanish film from 2007. Before we get down to business though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_06 1:03

Let's follow up on a movie. Okay, so as you may or may not recall, we recently reviewed the film Tremors from the year 1990. Ryan, you were not on this episode. Have you seen Tremors?

SPEAKER_05 1:13

Honey.

SPEAKER_06 1:14

That Southern accent kind of implies that maybe you did.

SPEAKER_05 1:17

Really? It's such a classic. No, I have not, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_06 1:21

That's fine.

SPEAKER_05 1:22

I have, however, been asked several times what I thought of it, and I have unfortunately had to confess that I was not on the episode and haven't watched it yet.

SPEAKER_06 1:29

I think if I had to guess, I would say you'd be team hack. But I don't know how you feel about Reba.

SPEAKER_05 1:34

Oh my god, I'm pretty into Reba. Not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_06 1:37

Okay, so who's to say?

SPEAKER_05 1:38

Reba McIntyre.

SPEAKER_06 1:39

Yeah, Reba's in it.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

Yeah, I I I do know the song.

SPEAKER_06 1:42

Now, if you want to hear what we really thought about that movie, go ahead and listen to that episode. But we wanted to hear what our listeners thought. So the votes are in, and 18% gave it a hack, and the other 82% slashed tremors. I guess a lot of people love this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Wow. It's a classic.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Yeah, it's well deserved. It's good. It's fun. Listen to the episode if you haven't already. Ryan, listen to the episode. Watch the movie.

SPEAKER_06 2:04

Listen to the first half, decide if you want to watch it, and then listen to the second half after you've seen it.

SPEAKER_05 2:08

Mm-hmm. Sure.

SPEAKER_06 2:10

We have a couple comments from our listeners. Tony on Twitter said, I do wish that there was more of a body count, and with that, more gore, yet it was still enjoyable. I'm with Mac and Alexis this time around, giving Tremors a soft slash. That's the right team to be on, Tony.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Totally.

SPEAKER_06 2:24

We have another comment from Alexander on Twitter who said, This is one of my favorite movies from my childhood. The scene where they pull the hat off the ground to show the old man's face always made me jump. I recently rewatched it for your podcast and I still love it. This is why I don't go pulling hats off the ground. You never know what you're going to find underneath. We have another comment from one of our patrons, Gregory, who said, This movie is absolutely a slash. It had Kevin Bacon and Reba McIntyre. It had underground killer worms. It had giant guns. It had great practical effects. What more do I need?

SPEAKER_01 2:51

A better performance and a better plot. I don't know, a whole lot of better things.

SPEAKER_05 2:56

Hey, it's all about the big guns and Reba. Honestly, the only thing in that whole description that got me was the practical effects. Everything else, I was like, this is not convincing at all. The practical effects, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 3:08

They were good, but they were also very like turd-like. And finally, I had to dig through the comments to find one hack, and our girl Brittany came through. She said, Uh, I don't have the nostalgia for this, so luckily I just see it as it is. A snooze fest in the desert and a very unattractive leading man. Sorry, Mr. Bacon. The worms couldn't keep my attention. It's a hack.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

Brittany, well done. And you know, you know that when when we need balance, I feel like me and Britney are here. We got this.

SPEAKER_06 3:34

And finally, we'd like to take a moment to thank some of our newest patrons, Amy and Nico. Amy and Nico, thank you so much for joining our Patreon family. If you haven't already, join our Discord. It is now live to both patrons and listeners alike. We're actually live streaming this episode as we speak, so that's one of your perks as a patron. Uh, and thank you so much for joining the family again. We hope to hear you featured on an upcoming follow-up episode. And that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

In October 2008, two films took the American box office by storm: Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Quarantine, a found footage horror film starring Jennifer Carpenter. What audiences may not have known at the time, however, was the fact Quarantine was an American remake of a Spanish film released one year prior. The film follows a television reporter named Angela, her cameraman, and two firefighters they've been following for a news program. The group responds to an emergency call about a woman trapped in her apartment, but when they arrive on scene, they find themselves mysteriously trapped in the building, with tensions rising among the tenants as they struggle to understand why. This week, we're talking about Wreck, which ran away with 38% of the overall patron vote.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Now, Matt, the nominator, said Rec is probably my favorite found footage horror of all time. The group is always asking if a movie scared them, and I'm curious how it fares to the pod. I find this movie genuinely scary. There's something about this movie that feels like it was actually just caught on camera and uploaded to Live Leak or something. There is some shaky cam going on, but I don't think it's a detriment to this movie. I actually think it adds to the realism, and I think it's an original zombie movie. Sue me.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Well, we'll see if that lawsuit's gonna stand in court, but for now, who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_06 5:11

So I actually saw Quarantine in theaters when it came out. And then I also watched the original rack in Spanish, like the dubbed version, sometime in my college years. So this is a movie I've actually seen a few times before tonight.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Wow, that is very interesting. Very interesting. It's very shocking to me. I wouldn't even say it's interesting, it's just flat-out surprising. So my parents had this weird cable, and somehow they actually had a horror channel. So I remember watching this with my sister, and specifically definitely before quarantine came out, but this is still a few years ago. But I had to text her to make sure I'm like, we saw this one, right? And she goes, Yeah, we saw this one.

SPEAKER_05 5:51

Yeah, I actually had no idea quarantine was a thing until we were just talking about it. And I looked it up. I don't think I've seen that. I definitely haven't seen this. I didn't know that it existed. This one's very Ryan's brand. Never heard of it, never seen it.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

And I'm gonna copy Ryan. I had never heard of this, never seen it until it landed uh on the list for the pod.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Okay, look, I am actually very surprised because I feel like quarantine was a moment when it came out, specifically because of its last scene, which is also part of the poster for the film. But I saw that when it came out, and I remember really liking it, especially its ending. But at the time I had no idea it was a remake, and I found out a couple years later, but I just never got around to seeing this. Everything I've ever heard indicated that this was gonna be like a far superior version. Uh especially since I heard it was near shot for shot, and I heard that the quarantine just couldn't do what this one did. So I expected it personally to have a lot less gore, but be more intentional in its cinematography. But for those of you who haven't seen it, what were you expecting?

SPEAKER_03 6:52

I had very low expectations for this movie, mostly because I was one of the last of us to see it, and so after hearing about Shaky Cam, which everyone knows I absolutely abhor, and dubbing, like forced dubbing, no option to listen listen to the original audio in any kind of rental or purchase format. I just was expecting to have a bad time.

SPEAKER_05 7:13

So I I again did this thing that I normally don't do, which is I saw what the Rotten Tomato score was before. And it's actually like 89% or something for this movie. So I was kind of going in with some high hopes. I mean, you know, a found footage movie, really not my jam. I didn't know it was gonna be a lot of like shaky cam, but I was I was thinking there was an opportunity for a good movie to be here. That was my expectation going in.

SPEAKER_06 7:38

Chris, you mentioned that this movie was a moment when it came out, and it definitely was, and I think that's why I saw it in theaters. But I had also just a few years prior seen the exorcism of Emily Rose starring Jennifer Carpenter, and that's actually what drew me to see Quarantine when it came out because I was like, oh, Emily Rose is in this. Let's go see what that's about. One thing I did not remember though was the runtime of this movie being so short. This is the tightest movie we've ever watched on the pod, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:02

It's absolutely not because host from 2020 was way shorter than this. It was less than an hour.

SPEAKER_06 8:07

Oh yeah. Okay, so speaking of host, I actually decided to watch this with the original Spanish dialogue and subtitles, even after I had paid $3.99 to rent the dubbed version, because just like five minutes into the dubbed, I was like, I can't, I can't do this. And Chris dropped a questionable link in the chat.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Cough, cough link.

SPEAKER_06 8:24

And I was like, you know what? Let me just watch the the dubbed version because I or the subbed version because I don't think I ever have before. And I actually watched it on my iPad because I remember when we watched host, I think it was Alexis and Ryan, they were like, Oh, we watched this on our laptop or like on our iPad or something, and it like heightened the experience. And I was like, you know what, this is found footage. Let me like give it that kind of a watch.

SPEAKER_05 8:43

But see, here the thing about the runtime is we've always said we love a tight 120. So you guys are going on and on about how short this is, but it's not that short. It's not like a 60-minute movie. I mean, I don't know, which would be an hour.

SPEAKER_03 8:57

So you know one of the original, like, considered titles for this was 70 minutes.

SPEAKER_05 9:02

I know, I'm just saying, like, we our thing is a tight 120. So, like, what are you guys on about it being a bit short?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Like, I think it's perfect. For me, it just it felt longer than that. It felt like it was an hour and a half, and I think just because I was feeling so tense in this movie, and surprisingly, knowing that this scene is set up in a you know high-rise apartment complex, I felt so claustrophobic watching this. You know, there's so many exits in this building, yet they're not able to get to them, and it's just it just oh my gosh, and help is so close yet, so far. And it was just like really had me on the edge of my seat intense. So it didn't feel like 70 minutes, it felt like an hour and a half. I totally agree. I don't think it felt too short.

SPEAKER_05 9:49

That's why I'm saying, like, it's not really a short runtime because it doesn't feel short.

SPEAKER_04 9:53

Like it's it's nice, it's nice.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah, when I say arguably too tight, I mean I actually wouldn't mind seeing a little bit more of this fleshed out. I do think it's well cut, I think it's well trimmed for what it is. I don't think you need more, but I think the overall feeling that I got from this was that I'm actually okay living in this situation, and I wouldn't mind seeing a couple more things. Now, I don't know what you could logistically add to really add value there, but it wasn't something where I was like dreading and just waiting for this to be over. I think one of the things that stands out to me is, you know, how tense this movie is, despite the fact I've seen quarantine. The cast is significantly smaller, and there's actually enough differences between the two that allowed me to have a good time with this and appreciate it as a standalone product, which I did not expect to go into it.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

I uh the runtime was okay for me. You know, I felt it was a little long because most of it I was not able to watch the movie. I texted Ryan that I think I need a dramamine when watching this movie. I just do not do well anytime there's shaky cam, and it will ruin any it could be the greatest movie on earth, but if there's a shaky cam and I look at it, I feel like I need to throw up, and that's like a major accessibility problem for me.

SPEAKER_05 11:06

It was really bad. Really? Yes. I am not like particularly sensitive to it. I just notice it, I'd say. Like it doesn't bother me the way it bothers Mac, but especially in the beginning of this movie where it seemed like we could have had a lot more steadiness because really they weren't doing anything. All it was just shaky and handheld for no reason. And if you ever think you're gonna put this footage on a television, this shaky, kill me now. Because like it was just just especially in the beginning. I understand when like the chaos happens and we get to that point, but like we were like kind of on Blair Witch level here for a bit, and I I can't do it. I cannot handle it. It's just it's a big distraction for me. It takes me out of any enjoyable experience that I could be having.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

I wonder if it's because you had seen so many found footage before you had seen this movie. So this is like one of maybe a few of the first that I've seen that were like this.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

I've probably only ever seen like three found footage movies.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Have you seen Cloverfield? No. Yeah, that one's bad. That one's worse than this. I would say no. Way worse.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

That was amazing.

unknown 12:10

God.

SPEAKER_05 12:10

But that one from the shakiness, she says. She's saying from the shakiness.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I worked at a movie theater, people were throwing up, okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Yeah, I'm sorry that you've been traumatized this way by found footage and shaky cam, but I fucking love it. I think what was cool though is looking back to the era that this is made, 2007. I started my career in broadcast and electronic news gathering in 2008, and oh my gosh, I remember how painful it was having to film on these cameras. You can't put sticks everywhere. You can't fucking use a tripod everywhere. And I'm sorry, but like stabilizers and rigs were just way too expensive for so many things. So I thought this actually had a great balance of trying to stabilize things by hand when you can, where you really just didn't need someone who was kind of bulky and like had a great center of gravity to try to stabilize as much as they could in the moment. There is gonna be uh some some movement there, but I wasn't bothered by the shake at all. It was shake and bake and it helped for me. I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_05 13:11

I love a shake and bake pork chop, okay? 2001, catch me with a shake and bake pork chop as a child, but no shaky cam, please.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

If I had seen this when it came out, I would not have had a problem. It was around 2009 when I suddenly developed horrible vertigo. Up until that point, like literally a year or two before that, is when I was seriously considering trying to fly aircraft for the military and like investigating that option. And then I woke up one day in 2009-ish and uh felt like someone punched me in the head. And from that point onward, like literally laying the wrong way, I get horrible vertigo. So I I can't even watch a video of somebody doing a barrel roll without feeling the effect.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

How tragic for you.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

It really is. Because you know, I I don't think it's necessarily like a bad tactic to use when you're trying to film a movie and make it more realistic. I think just in my old age and shaky brain, I would prefer that like true crime style of filming. Because that seems a bit more realistic for me, because I can at least watch it.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Fair enough, fair enough. I mean, I did see Batman the other day in IMAX three rows from the front, and I was like, I might have a seizure up here. But this wasn't this wasn't too bad.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

I'll I'll say the thing that surprised me though, when I'm able to look at it, you know, I could stomach it for a little bit and then I have to kind of look away, but like listening to it as a story, it actually would work really well as an audio drama. I could totally see this being like a podcast, um, because there's so much going on in the environment, and I know some of it was the dubbing, and that's a little bit hard to get through, but there's a lot going on audio-wise that I actually enjoyed. You know, they added to kind of the visceral feel, not just with what's on screen, but with what's off-screen. Some of this film is in the dark, and you have to figure out what's going on by the sound. And I was okay with that because that's kind of how I was spending the whole movie. So I appreciated a little audio work here and there.

SPEAKER_06 14:58

I love the generosity you have in regards to the audio Mac. I, like I said, could not deal with the dubbed whatsoever. And the moment I switched over to the subbed, I was like, oh, oh thank god I can breathe. But while I was watching, I was really surprised with how I remembered every single scene that happened in this movie. And I think it's because I've seen this movie more than two times. I think I used to watch this movie a lot. At the time, like Alexis was saying, it was one of the first, like, really popular found footage horror movies. And it was one of my favorites for a long time. But I guess I just kind of like forgot about it and haven't revisited it since. But as it was going through, I was like, oh, I know exactly every single death, every single shot, every single visual from this movie, and I famously never remember anything. So that was a very big surprise to me. Uh, one thing that also surprised me is that even though I was watching this on my iPad with my AirPods in, I actually fell asleep. And I don't know if I was just really sleepy or if it was just that everything was in Spanish, so it was easy for my eyes to close, but I did doze off a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 15:54

The Spanish language will lull you into doing things. What about the screaming? There is a shit ton of screaming in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

What's wrong with you, Paris?

SPEAKER_06 16:04

I don't know. It soothed me.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Okay, look it. Listen here. As the youngest of five children growing up in a Puerto Rican and Cuban household, I can definitively say Spanish never lulled me into shit. Like, what? Never. What? I can't believe you fell asleep.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Hey, I'll I'm gonna back Paris up on this. My wife was watching this with me and she started to fall asleep a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

So do we need a bedtime or a curfew for watching these fucking movies? Y'all can't fall asleep. Jeez.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Hey, look, we watched it at four o'clock in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_06 16:34

I watched it at like 9 p.m., but it was a combination of not being able to like audibly latch onto anything, and then this camera was so shaky that my eyes didn't really fix on too many things, so it was just like easy for my senses to just relax.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Wow. I did not fall asleep because I was so tense throughout this entire movie. What really surprised me was how it just dives right in. You don't really get a lot of the beginning credits or anything. It reminds me of the Poughkeepsie tapes, where you just straight go in to like essentially the documentary or whatever they're filming. And what also surprised me was because I had so much tension throughout this entire movie that they actually paused in the middle, essentially, maybe like 45 minutes in, and they broke it up and they had some sort of you know interviews and the camera was still, so I was able, I feel like, to catch my breath, which I think really helped me follow this movie through.

SPEAKER_05 17:24

So I was most surprised by how many times I was gotten by a jump scare, and how many times I was like actually afraid of like the monsters on screen because I don't expect that. And I think I think three jump scares like got me in this movie. There was one that like I could have been a snake leaving my skin to go enter a new form of skin, okay? Because I I just it it almost jumped me off the couch, and it was just because I was so engaged in the moment and I knew it was coming, and that's the worst type of jump scare. And that was the thing that I wasn't prepared for. I wasn't ready for this movie to scare me. And honestly, it did.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Okay. Well, for me, obviously a disappointment is how difficult it is to find a version of this film that is just like in its native Spanish without English dubbing. And I'm glad I was able to like find the link and share a link with Paris. I watched the English dubbing and it hurts, and I think especially hurts, and I had the same experience with um that movie Veronica on Netflix, where even the English uh subtitles don't match the Spanish language that I'm hearing and understanding. And I'm like, what the fuck? That's not exact that's not a low what you said. Uh so that can be a little bit frustrating, but I think what surprised me most, and and Ryan, why I think this movie was so effective for you and its jump scares, not only in the timing of the jump scares, was how effective the cast was in this. So, and this is something I was I was really unpacking when I was watching Quarantine afterwards. Quarantine gives you a few stars, it gives you Jennifer Carpenter, who is amazing, it gives you Jay Hernandez, but the fact that you have so many relative unknowns in this makes this feel so much better. So I'm able to buy into the fear so much more. And I didn't find this frightening personally, but I I knew like experiencing, I'm like, okay, yeah, this has a few tricks up its sleeve where I knew that somebody would get got by it, especially with a few like what the fuck is that of the background moments.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

I felt no fear whatsoever, uh, as as always, except for the fear of having my vertigo triggered. So that was, you know, I I guess that counts maybe, but I I didn't find it that scary, mostly because this like genre doesn't really scare me that much. I think a lot of what is going to happen, like I'm constantly expecting to happen. So I'm more surprised when it doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Alright. Well, um, I am not gonna say did out of that because I was freaking terrified. I was terrified when I first watched this. I was terrified anticipating watching this, so I purposely did not watch this last night. I was like, you know what? I'll just watch it tomorrow during the day, which I typically like a day to ponder on the movie, but I didn't do that today. So I, you know, the jump scares really do get me, and especially, you know, when you're watching it on your laptop. But I had a big oh fuck moment, and it was very similar to signs when you see that alien go across the screen, it's a similar effect um during this part, and it scared and terrified the shit out of me. And I'm glad I watched this during the day.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

You mean with our resident bendy boy Javier Botet?

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yes. Who's in literally everything? Yeah, yes. He's so amazing. I can't wait to talk about him later.

SPEAKER_06 20:38

So I am quite confident that when I saw this in theaters and several times after this movie was very scary to me. I specifically remember there being a jump scare and or a kill that was very impactful and it got me every time. And this time, I don't know, it didn't quite do it for me. Maybe because I actually can't tell you why, but this movie did not scare me this time around. Maybe because I've just grown up, you know?

SPEAKER_05 21:00

You just stopped believing, didn't you? I do just need to note that like this movie. I feel like if I could see it without this horrible dubbing would be more scary. It would be like overall a different experience, I think. And I was still scared. So there's that. Even with the horrible dub screaming. With that being said, I don't feel like this movie is super original, and I think it's because I'm watching it in 2022. I think it would have felt very different back in the day. But having lived quarantines, uh, it just feels kind of I don't know. It feels kind of expected. And I didn't even really know what type of movie it was when I started watching it. So I don't know. I I think there's something to be said for originality, but it's it doesn't stand out as hugely original for me.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Ooh, oh, oh wow, Ryan, you wound me once, you wound me twice, and here you are yet again to uh insult to this movie. I agree. Okay, look, I'll say this after the Blair Witch project, but but Before there was Cloverfield in quarantine, there was this. And I this did come out around the same time as George Romero's Diary of the Dead. So there's that, right? It's not like it's the most unique thing in the world, but this does have a completely different feel to it. And there's even a different element to the third act of this movie that quarantine completely abandoned. So there is certainly some originality woven into the fabric of this movie. And it's something that I'm really curious to see if it continues to be explored in its sequels. I've never seen the sequels to this movie. So this does get a measure of originality points for me.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

I'm gonna give it some two, and initially I wasn't going to after watching it, but the more I thought about it, even like the setup of having them like doing a ride along with firefighters, I don't remember somebody using that as a vehicle to get you know people into a situation with a camera that made sense. Like, good good job on them and finding a like realistic way of making that happen.

SPEAKER_06 22:58

For once, I can speak to the originality of a movie at the time it came out, and when this movie came out, there was not really anything else out there like it. And I remember being like, oh my god, you have to see this. This is wild, it's a crazy ride. And I guess like looking back, like I hadn't seen the Blair Witch project at that point in high school. I was probably like a sophomore in high school when this came out. But I remember thinking this was like one of a kind and it was like so innovative. So originality points should be given to this movie, even though now in hindsight it's a little bit Blair Witch 2.0.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

I'm glad you brought up Blair Witch because I did put that on here, but it's completely different. You know, you're bringing in a different vehicle on how it's going through, and just kind of I guess it's a found footage, and that's the next one. But Ryan, you're correct. Everything that I've watched, usually I contribute to like, oh shit, I hate found footage, but then I realize all those movies came after this, so I've only seen two or three before that, but it definitely is original.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Hell yeah. And I think part of the originality there is because of how effective its ending is. I absolutely love the ending of this movie. And I love the third act reveal about what the hell happened there, and and there's enough difference in the root cause of the plot from quarantine that makes it feel like a fresh watch, even if some of this is like, oh wow, quarantine really did go sh nearly fucking shot for shot and almost line for line. But I found it to be entertaining and satisfying.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

I think the ending was probably the best part of the movie. I was really impressed with it, even though I have trouble with cameras that shake. In the end, it made sense that it did. And it actually kind of worked for the vibe that they were giving us. I so I did want to give it some credit for the ending. Like there's a particular type of camera that they're using at the end that I don't want to spoil that was like really effective in what hap- what's like what's going on in the story for those for those characters.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Chris, I'm glad you like the story because I thought you might say it was giving a little too much, but I love the information you get in the end and how everything just reveals itself, and I couldn't be happier with everything that happens in the ending of this movie.

SPEAKER_05 25:03

I what? I could not disagree more. The ending of this movie makes no sense. Okay. I don't I can't wait to argue about the ending of this movie because there's so much that happens, and then we get to a point and it's just like throw everything at it. And then we got to a point where they were just coming up with all these different things coming together. I don't know. It's very difficult to talk about an ending when you don't like it without spoiling it, but uh for me, it was a completely lackluster ending story-wise. Let me be clear. Movie-wise, like if you just took the ending of this, it was chill. Story-wise, I hated it.

SPEAKER_06 25:42

I can kind of see where you're coming from there, Ryan, but I have to agree with everybody else. The ending is probably the best part of this movie.

SPEAKER_05 25:49

You guys make me feel like I'm crazy, and I know I'm not. To be fair, I am a little bit crazy, but not in this respect.

SPEAKER_06 25:55

No, they do kind of just like cram it a bunch at the end to be like, see, it made sense.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Oh, okay. That's not the feeling I got from quarantine, but this felt well executed, and I can see that there's already some disagreement here among us, so let's make our approach towards our ratings. But before we actually score this movie, Alexis, what's our body count?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

We have a total of 16 bodies in this movie. Not necessarily murdered or killed off, but somehow disposed of.

SPEAKER_05 26:24

And what about the animal report? The animal report is perfectly fine this week. There is an animal mentioned, but we never see the cute boy.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

There is an implication, that's for sure. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:34

Yeah, sure, but we don't see anything on screen. Implications are not PT relevant.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

That's true. You will be pleased to know if you've seen quarantine and run unhappy about what happened in that film. You will be absent and spared of that in this one. But let's go ahead and get into our ratings. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_03 26:53

I'm gonna jump in here. Um, it's not gonna be surprising here. Any credit that this movie gets is going to be ruined because of the shaky cam. This movie is a nauseating hack. Um, shaky cam that makes me feel instantly sick is a guaranteed way of making lose any enjoyment that I might have had from a film. I had to spend most of the hour 15 minutes listening and only watching intermittently, so I didn't literally throw up. Now, this is maybe a hack against the way the movie was delivered to me, but not the movie itself. But the dubbing and subtitles available for rent and purchase in the US are absolutely atrocious. The voiceover work was amateur at best, and the subs didn't even match the audio of the film's offensively built-in dubbing. So, yeah, that whole experience for me was such a such a major hack.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Wow. Hacking on a single note. Okay, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Imagine if you were on a car ride and the car was beautiful and it was smooth, and you could get, you know, you could look outside and you're like, wow, everything's so beautiful outside, the grass is green, but every five seconds someone punched you in the back of the head.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

That's a little violent.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

That's kind of what it's like for me, though, because basically, like every five seconds, that's what it feels like inside my brain.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

A little dramatic, but okay. That's funny that you mentioned found footage and shaky cam because I think that's what made this movie a slash for me. You have this acting, and you have people who have different motivations and different reactions to what's going on, and it's really interesting because I thought some characters would be bad and some would be good, but I realize everyone handles chaos in a different way, and it really is portrayed amazingly in this movie, and especially the chaos of the camera, and it's just adding to this tension that builds up. And I've said, like, yeah, this movie feels tense in previous episodes before, but I've never really had my heart racing like I have in this movie, and this really just had me on a complete ride, and I was there for it, and it actually scared me where I think I can't even sleep in my apartment tonight, so I might go to my boyfriend's house tonight because I'm so afraid of the some of the images you're left with, and I think that makes for a great movie and a great slash. Well, I'm so happy for you.

SPEAKER_05 29:03

I think unfortunately, I'm gonna come in here and I'm gonna echo a lot of the things that Max said. The shaky cam in this movie is unbearable, and it's unbearable from the jump, it's unbearable when we're doing nothing important. It's just unbearable. And uh yeah, be straightforward. I really have issues with like handheld footage. I don't like it. It's not that it makes me sick, it's just that I don't like it and I don't believe it. I don't like it's the same as like a based on a true story blurb at the beginning of a movie. It doesn't do anything for me because I know you're not, it's not real. So I don't need it to be found footage. I can just have a well-filmed movie and I'll be just as happy. So that's a big, big downside for me. And the other thing, unfortunately, we do have to talk about the dubbing. The dubbing is miserable. And if there were other options that were readily available, I would have embraced them. I'd so much rather read subtitles. But when you rent this movie, it's dubbed, and it's dubbed horribly. And I don't know who's responsible for dubbing. I don't know if it's the studio or the service or whatever, but the dubbing is terrible. With that being said, this movie to me has a really interesting story. I think when we finally get to the apartment and and are actually like in it, I am very into the story. I'm into the different people, all their different, like like Alexa said, their different little motivations and what's going on. I think what happens in this movie is really interesting. But there's also like a bunch of stuff that I don't like. I don't like the story of the ending. The ending does not make sense. I don't care what you say, I will argue about it. I can't wait to argue about it because the ending doesn't make sense. It just doesn't. And then there's just like a random set of like extreme racism mid-movie from like eight different characters. No need for that. It made sense the first time, maybe the second time, but there's like four mentions of the same like issue, and it was all just like vague, casual racism for no reason, and it was it just wasn't necessary. I this movie for me had too many negatives to outweigh the positives. The one positive is the story, and unfortunately for me, it's gonna be a hack. Soft soft hack? Yeah, I just said hack. Oh no, it's firm.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

That shit's firm.

SPEAKER_05 31:20

I'm not like passionately hacking this, I don't hate it, but I I could never watch this again.

SPEAKER_06 31:25

Uh so this movie. I, in some twist turn of events, have seen this movie so many times. Like I said, I used to love this movie in high school. Uh, it was one that I told a lot of people to go see. I saw it in theaters. Uh, and I was curious to see if this movie still held up, and to be so honest, it did not for me. I was bored. I think maybe because I just knew everything that was gonna happen. Uh, I was glad to watch the original Spanish version because I got to practice my Spanish. I do live in Miami, and it was fun to see how much I actually picked up and understood. Entiendo más. This movie was kind of dull and bad, and there's specifically two things that I remember from this movie. One, it did hold up and it was at the ending, and we all know what it is. Two, it's like it's a kill slash jump scare in the middle. And this time around, it just like fell flat for me. And that was something I remember being like so iconic. I remember being like, oh, and I remember being gagged every time it happened. And then this time I was like, oh yeah, and then that happened. Oh wow, okay, moving on. And so ultimately, like, I was bored, found footage, did not age well. Maybe it's like roller coasters where like you love them when you're a teen, and then you become an adult and you're like, mmm, I'm okay, thank you. Uh so this movie's getting a hack for me.

SPEAKER_05 32:35

Oh, I knew it was coming.

SPEAKER_06 32:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:37

So happy you're here, Paris. Thank you. It's been a long time since we were here together.

SPEAKER_06 32:41

It was good at the time, but I am impervious to nostalgia, and I will not give this movie eight points just because I used to like it.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Well, a lot of things have been shared here, and yes, we live at this intersection of so many different tastes and appreciation for horror, but uh I don't see where the hate for this movie is coming from because this movie was fucking phenomenal. Phenomenal? Look, it's imperfect, right? It's imperfect, but it is a damn good found footage movie, and I fucking love found footage movies. Look, okay, some things, um, if we were to play an icebreaker and were to say, like, hey, yo, what's your fucking guilty pleasure? Like, seventh layer of guilt, I'd be like Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, and fucking found footage horror films. This movie had the tall task of A standing up on its own legs being from 2007 and being from like fucking HDV, uh, you know, like tape cameras, and then B, me having to experience it after watching already its shot for shot remake with quarantine, which was done with a lot more glitz and glamour of Hollywood. It is shot remarkably better. It is shot with, you know, higher quality film, it is far more stable. So, Mac, maybe that's something that would actually be a little bit better for you in your experience with this story. But I love how effective the smaller cast is. I absolutely love it. There are jump scares in here that while they didn't make me jump, I see them as being well crafted and effective. I absolutely love even the uh the trueness of the lighting of this movie. It's only lit with lamps from the interior of the building, and they didn't put additional stage production here to try to sell this story. This is a solid found footage film in the sense that it feels like this could have actually happened. Not necessarily from like the logistics of the story, but with the framing of the technology. And for that it's a slash, unapologetically. Now, we find ourselves a house divided tonight, and the majority of us did give this a hack, which breaks every fiber of my being, but two of us did give it a slash. So you have the choice in front of you, dear listener. You can either find this movie available to rent or purchase. If you purchase it, you may be able to unlock that original Spanish track, or you can listen to it with the dubs and the subs. But either way, make your choice, then join us in the second half so we can explore the spoiler zone together. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

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SPEAKER_01 35:47

Welcome back, folks. You are now entering the spoiler zone for Rec, which has earned three hacks and two slashes. Now we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into specifics of our ratings, we have the matter of gore to attend to.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

Yeah, and then you have that point where Alex, his head smashes down onto the floor. Like, I love these scenes. And you know, you have all this like detail, and we'll talk about it after the kills, but when two of the first bodies are placed out, and everyone's watching them, and then you have the medic coming in, and you actually finally see some sort of you know, fleshy eoy-gooey, and then there's that needle that goes in, and I just remember that part, and I was like, huh, this is terrible.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Flushy eoy-gooey is a technical term, industry term here.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

We're just making up words tonight. But out of 16 deaths slash infections in this movie, I love to hear what y'all's favorites were.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

I'll be the one to say it. Alex did not fall flat for me, although he did literally fall flat. I fucking loved that death. Now I'm sure that he did suffer a bit more, and that wasn't his actual time of death, but really just the theatrics of a sudden plop to the ground. To know that this firefighter was just heaved over by Conchita or alguien más, who knows? Uh I fucking love it.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

That was also my favorite, Chris. So um I I just don't see how anyone could not love that, but I'm gonna pick another one, and that is when the racist old gay man got his head bit through the window.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

That was intense.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

That was like cracking open an apple, right? I love I just I could feel it. It just really looked like scalp opened, skull cracked, all in one fell swoop. I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

And you knew it was coming too. Didn't that death give you the good energy of like a haunted house?

SPEAKER_03 37:58

Oh yeah, totally. Because it's just like somebody popping through a window at you.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

This whole movie gave me haunted house vibes, but in a good way.

SPEAKER_06 38:04

I wish I could say the same, Alexis. It gave me haunted house vibes in a not good way. I remember being like, oh yeah, this is very just like jump scare haunted house. Especially like towards the end when like the old bloody bitch jumped out and was just like, ugh. I was like, no, we're done with you. We did that. Honestly, it's hard for me to find a kill that made me feel anything while watching this movie. So I think by default, I'm gonna give it to Alex. Just because that at when I saw that initially, that was like such a huge moment for me. Uh and this time around, nothing did anything for me. So in high like, I'm gonna retroactively throw my favorite kill down several flights of stairs and give it to Alex.

SPEAKER_05 38:43

Yeah, honestly, I don't mean to be like a bummer here, but none of the kills stand out to me, and even as I'm trying to think back over them, they're all just kind of like person gets bitten. Well, I will say one thing that stands out is when Conchita gets shot uh the first time. Like, I I don't really know how to consider her death because she's kind of never really alive, is she? But when she gets shot, that was like a very intense moment and one of the like jumpy bits that kind of got me. So I'll go with that, I suppose. But honestly, a lot of them just kind of run together for me.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Yeah, it was intense, but right the the lamest kill, in my opinion. I have a best and lamest, and I can't wait to give this uh an award at the end of the year. It's when Quantita is coming in, and then there's the woman, one of the residents, and she just like bites her, and then the lady's dead off camera. I was like, this is so lame. Like, I want like full-on gore in this movie, which I know it wasn't necessarily lacking, but that's why I think this movie is so good because it's not too in your face, because this would not be that realistic. Usually someone would get bitten, maybe fall to the ground, maybe whimper, maybe she's playing dead the entire time. Who knows? Who knows? But the best one I'm gonna say is Maria Carmen. She was tied. I think it was just the most terrifying one for me because she's essentially handcuffed to the railing and she's not able to get away. And it was just so like heartbreaking to see that and to see her transform and then having to get back through her to go up the stairs, and it was just that moment was just terrifying for me because she couldn't do anything about it.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Okay, but let's be clear, she already had her daughter's blood all up on her face and undoubtedly in her eyes. She was fucked no matter what. It was just a matter of time.

SPEAKER_06 40:32

Yeah, that wasn't heartbreaking. She was an awful rotted bitch from the jump, so annoying, should have died sooner.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

No, completely, completely agree. Oh, okay. And you know what I'm also lacking in this movie? It's the detail that I usually see in some shows like The Walking Dead, and I know there's a lot more budget in that, but I feel like I lost a lot of that. You know, a lot of this, the details because I feel of the shaky camera were lost, including the young officer. He had one of his ears replaced by a prosthetic once it was bitten, but you just lose all these details because of this shaky camera, this, you know, flashes, you know, off and on with the nightcam, which unfortunately that's just how this movie is. I'm not critiquing that part. I wish there was more gore, but you know, I'll watch a different zombie movie for that.

SPEAKER_05 41:23

Yeah, I think I have to agree. I think some of the uh visuals that would have been really interesting get lost a bit. And you know, there's places where it was necessary, like at the end, if we saw more of that, it wouldn't have worked. But throughout, I wish I had been able to see a little bit more. Again, like the fountain footage thing, I just don't need it.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

I think it's like a conveyor to get it through and to make you feel like you're a part of it. Do you think visually that they did great and it was the design of Javier Botet's character? I mean, just seeing the skin he has to put on for this performance is impeccable, and you can see the detail even from far away. And that's the part that scared me the most is when you see his character walk across the frame in the back, and then you can see the spine on this character, and it's just grotesque.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

Grotesque.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

That uh gives me very much the energy of love the skin you're in, yes. So, Alexis, I 100% agree with you. I think uh the aesthetic of Javier Batet's character in this particular film is phenomenal, and it's something that I thought looked so fucking stupid and quarantined, and it's similar, so I'm not quite sure why the difference here uh is so great to me, but maybe it's because we have this moment in this movie where Pablo is looking through the camera and we see the lanky shadow of the Madeiros girl, and that's who Javier Botet's character is. I love that we get this mysteriously long lanky figure, and like, what the fuck could that even be? And see, that's why I love the style of this footage visually. So, quarantine, like I said earlier, it's it's too Hollywood, it's too polished, uh, it's too I mean, like, even like the uh the depth of field that they managed to get on that camera, no local news station looks that fucking good. This feels right. This feels like news, electronic news in 2007. You put on your local like Wave E10 in Virginia, you're gonna see footage that doesn't look too uns uh dissimilar to this. I absolutely loved it. It had lackluster quality, it had shitty lighting conditions and imperfect sound. It felt true to the spirit of found footage, and it every every element of it had motivation. And even in the framing of these shots, like when uh Angela and Pablo first get in and we had the firefighters trying to figure out what's going on, and the cop is descending down the stairs, and you just see Angela peek up from the bottom left corner of the frame, and she was like, get this. Absolutely love that.

SPEAKER_06 43:59

I think. My favorite visual element is kind of basic, but I think I like it for a not basic reason. Here I go.

SPEAKER_05 44:06

So this movie Thanks for the intro.

SPEAKER_06 44:09

Yeah. This movie's obviously found footage. But I think the way the perspective of this being like a newsman's camera and we're following an anchor woman really helps you to live in the relationship between Angela and Pablo to the point where you're actually watching the whole movie from Pablo's perspective, but everything that Angela does and says is really like directly to you as the viewer. And I think that makes the movie easier to settle into and kind of feel a part of. And I think that is probably one of the better, not excuses, but like better vehicles of like a found footage storyline that I've seen in a very long time.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

100%. And let's just say this Pablo deserved better. Pablo was the goat.

SPEAKER_05 44:51

I think that's a good point, Paris. That was a very interesting thing, and I like that you brought that up because it's a very unique perspective, and their relationship and like the camera being there, it all does feel very natural. I think my favorite visual has to be Javier. I I don't know how anything could be better than that. He looks amazing in this movie. And at the end, I think the coolest part is that the the girl is just doing things. She's just like in her house, like vibing. Like she just walks in the room and is like looking around at stuff, and you know, she doesn't really realize anybody's there for a little bit. And it was just so freaking creepy to see and so cool. And the whole the whole end bit, I would say, visually, is amazing.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

And and to go with that, my favorite visual element is the end bit. It's the it's the apartment that they get into. I love the plastered wall look. Uh, I think every time we see it, it's it's usually to show us like a psychopath, typically. Um, but there's definitely an obsession happening here that you don't need to tell us, we can just see it right there on the screen. And and so I'm I'm always a fan when we get that like pictures plastered over the walls. Um, they get freaked out, at least in the dub version, uh, just from seeing like saint pictures, and that was hilarious. Like they're literally like, oh my gosh, because there's a picture of Mary on the wall. Uh and I was like, I don't exactly understand that. Maybe it's an issue with the dubbing or the subbing, I'm not sure, but um just they were just overwhelmed by everything that was happening in the room, at least. And it's just you know, anytime you walk into a room and it's just set up like that, there's like beakers sitting around and chemicals and stuff. There was so much more in that one room than the entire rest of the apartment building. So much to look at.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Okay, you're absolutely right. And I do think that move that moment suffers in the the dubbed version because it was something that I'm like, okay, I get what they're saying here, but it doesn't feel totally there. So I watched just the subbed version, and I ultimately walked away with that being my favorite scene. I I surprisingly really love the point in the third act where we get some exposition and we get some insight into what's caused this. So in quarantine, and I'm sorry, spoiler, if you haven't seen quarantine yet, but I really dislike this moment because it's painted more as like a doomsday vibe that talks about a mysterious virus, and Angela totally fell apart and she couldn't even remotely keep it together. And this so they actually get some information, and we see the intersection of science and religion, and we see that this guy is an agent of the Vatican, or we hear in Spanish that he's an agent of the Vatican, and he's been trying to track down and isolate this girl who it seems by all appearances it's a demonic possession. And then he realizes that there's an enzyme that he's trying to isolate and try to cure, and then it mutates, and he's like, fuck, she's gotta die. So he seals up the apartment, and that's something that I want to learn more about, and I hope it's it's explored in the sequels, I'm not sure. But I loved it that that idea that grapple of like she's gotta die, but he didn't kill her, he left her to die, and then the problem became infinitely worse. I think that is a really interesting uh layer of complexity there. And I you know, I love the idea that they thought she was possessed when in reality they ended up confronting the need for a vaccine to treat an enzyme. You know what I mean? Like I love that that that realization and that journey.

SPEAKER_05 48:16

Yeah, I I just feel like it was a a long jump for me, and I'm not a track star. I just feel like jumping from demonic possession to illness, question mark, and then I I so from my understanding, the point is that the dog contracted the same thing that she's sick with, question mark, but she's not a zombie. That's what that's what I don't understand. I don't understand what anything in that room has to do with the rest of the apartment.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

She is a zombie, so she was left in to die.

SPEAKER_06 48:49

Patient zero.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

Yeah, so she is that in that apartment. There's like that trapdoor, and like you see into the addict, and there's like a little boy up there, so it seems like she didn't just hole up and die. Somehow her disease spread, whether that's through the air duct, uh, whether that's through her getting into the addict, and the dog ends up contracting that and then spreading that to the little girl.

SPEAKER_05 49:11

That doesn't seem like a long stretch, a long jump to make from from point A to point B for you guys. Because for me, it just really does. No, not at all. Do you see what the fuck dogs eat on a regular basis? They'd be getting anything. No, but but she hasn't eaten anything, she's just there.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

Oh, yeah. She's dead. There's a lot of gross stuff in that apartment. Like I could smell it through the screens. So to me, any of that could have leaked into any part.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

But if you look at her, you can tell that she's been wasting away. But she's dead. She's not gonna die again.

SPEAKER_06 49:43

She's undead, she's a zombie. For me, it was just like I used to live in an apartment in New York, and it's just so disgusting, and you're just like so marinating in everyone else in that building's juices that it just like kind of made sense that, like, oh, somebody was infected on the top floor, and it probably all just like trickled down and fucked everybody over.

SPEAKER_05 50:00

But again, I d I I don't know. I I will just s I will be at peace with just saying that I don't think that this ending uh puts the pieces together for me. It just doesn't. I don't get the jump from demon to zombie, and maybe I need to re-watch it in the Spanish subbed version and only pay attention to that, but I it just doesn't work for me. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 50:22

There's no demons.

SPEAKER_05 50:24

I understand, but they thought it was. I understand that, but like literally when they walk in, everything is Catholic. Like, it's just I don't know, it just doesn't work.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

Think about Chris's synopsis, they initially see this behavior, and so they get the church involved because they're like, oh, she's possessed.

SPEAKER_07 50:42

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 50:42

Then they realized so it could be, it could be like demonically originated, you know. We haven't gotten that far yet, but all we know is they realize, hey, wait a second, this is uh science-based, and they're gonna try to tackle this with a science-based approach, but they couldn't. They couldn't fix it, they couldn't figure it out. So they're like, peace, I'm out here, because I can't I can't fix this. Like, this is too much. But so yeah, initially, this like priest is like, oh, this is this is a really bad demonic possession. I just can't fix it. Let me let me put Mary over here so to like look at me to motivate me. Like, we got this.

SPEAKER_05 51:15

She didn't bite nobody in the meantime. We were doing all this testing.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

She wasn't there yet. You know, this is this is the first one. It's it's like a s a slower change.

SPEAKER_05 51:22

She was somewhat change.

SPEAKER_03 51:23

Right.

SPEAKER_06 51:23

But then also, like, who is that little naked boy in the attic?

SPEAKER_05 51:26

I it just it just doesn't work for me. I'm fine with it. I understand what you guys are trying to say, but it just doesn't work for me. I'm just telling you, watch Wreck 2. I don't think I will.

SPEAKER_06 51:34

Nor should you have to.

SPEAKER_05 51:36

Well, I'm okay with with being who I am here, and I I just think it's a big jump. That's all.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

Let me go off of what Chris was saying and talk about my favorite scene in this movie. It goes back to our boy Pablo watching the health department worker through the window. Uh, one, it was a little bit more stable, so really enjoyed that moment. Uh, but two, we got to see this like cover-up in action, and it really revealed to us that yes, these are totally zombies. So everything we're thinking could be happening, confirmed. We got some zomboys, uh, it's going down. Um, it's typical at that point. Like, we've got the government, they're trying to cover it up, they're handcuffing them, he's wearing the hazmat suit. It feels like a tried and true zombie movie at that point. So I really just enjoyed a moment of what we expect to see.

SPEAKER_00 52:18

Speaking of expectations, there were a few times, you know, you see a movie and you're like, yep, this is about where they're about to get me with a jump scare. You know, s they're gonna close a door, they're gonna pan back into the hallway. And this movie has a lot of those. And my favorite scene is actually when Angela asks to see the tape and rewinds it, and she's holding the camera and you can kind of see like behind her, and I was like, watch, something's gonna come. Something's gonna come up behind her. And I because I've been so far removed from this movie, I can't recall that I was like, something will be there, and it isn't, and I like that it still plays on your, you know, what you might be expecting and brings that element of horror out, even though it's still trying to be a fan footage movie.

SPEAKER_06 53:04

It's hard to think of any other scene besides that ending little sequence that we get. But if I had to pick something else, it would probably be the scene where that snot-nosed little bitch bit her mom's face off because both of them had it coming. That girl did not have tonsillitis, she'd been infected, get her out, lock her up, mom should be in prison. So just seeing those two just collapse into each other's own bullshit was a long time coming. But then, like seeing that little girl run around with her little dress, I was like, no, somebody hit her with a bat and just like knock her out. We're not doing this. Not not slowly approaching the child to give her an injection, hit her in the head with a bat and then and then tranquilize her.

SPEAKER_03 53:42

She made it so much longer than I thought they were gonna let her, because it's like a child. You know, I thought they were like, Well, we've gotta put her down, uh, I'll do it. Mom, look away, and she's gonna be like, No, let me do it. Instead, they were like, Let her run wild for the next 15 minutes. Like, what? It's a child, man.

SPEAKER_06 53:58

They were like, She's a child. We should treat her differently because she's a zombie baby.

SPEAKER_03 54:03

No. Right. It's just like, you know, when you play with kids when you were a kid and they're smaller than you, so you put your hand on their forehead and you're like, aha, you can't, you know, make it past me. It's like that. They should have done that. Like, you can't bite me, I got your forehead, but we didn't. We didn't get that. We got 15 minutes of uh self-sacrifice, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

I think it adds the same layers of complexity as whenever you try to fight anything that small, like Chucky.

SPEAKER_05 54:25

I think one of my favorite parts is when they have the two guys on the gurney and like the hazmat suit guys just come in, and like we all know what's going on by this point. Like, we know it's about to be a zombie movie. If you weren't sure at the beginning, if you didn't already know, we like can kind of see the, you know, they start like handcuffing them to the table and everything. So we we start to know, and you're just waiting for the moment when they come back to life. There's more of the scene than you expect because it seems like it's gonna happen pretty quickly, and it just kind of drags for a few minutes, not in a bad way, and then finally we get the shot of them coming up in just just havoc, you know, biting faces, doing all kinds of stuff. I think that scene is one that was very satisfying to know that like it's gonna finally happen because they've just been sitting there unanimated, waiting to reanimate for so long. Also, that dude with his head busted open is dead as heck, and they keep trying to save him, trying to do stuff, get him an ambulance. He doesn't need that, he's dead. So I just was waiting for them to be zombies, and then when they finally come through, the start of a party.

SPEAKER_01 55:27

You know, you you talk about the start of the party, everybody's kind of coming back to life, and and shit pops off. But I think one of the most interesting things about this movie that even in the in the immediate moments before shit pops off, there's this constant fight and struggle over stop recording. No, we have the right, stop recording, we have the right. And you even have the tenants getting really worked up about this. Something that I really love about this movie is this version of Angela. I I I watched quarantine right after this, so I'm like, wow, I really had like high memories of that movie, and I realized, again, I love Jennifer Carpenter. This has nothing to do with I think how she played the role. I think this is all in how the role was scripted. Her character fucking falls apart, and it's honestly really frustrating to watch and experience. It's really a disappointment, uh, especially now, like watching this again. This Angela keeps her head mostly together, like she panics, she freaks out like everybody else, but I it's the journey from her watching uh you know, watching this movie in the in the beginning. She is interviewing the uh chief of the firehouse, and she's like, Hey, if this guy's a pain in the ass, just cut. Like, don't waste the tape. And we see tape used as like a valuable asset in this whole story where she's no longer wanting to care about, like, obviously, you know, not wasting the tape, but she's like, film everything. We have to get fucking everything, Pablo. We have to get everything, and she's always checking if she got it. I think that in itself is an interesting mark of just her character going through this movie.

SPEAKER_03 57:02

I had some troubles though, initially, where it just seems that the uh TV crew was kind of unprofessional. Like they weren't really prepared for this interview, for this whole this whole segment, really. The interview with the with the with the kid later on, what a bad interview. What was that? Like, hey, don't speak. I'm talking to your daughter. All right, so tell me about your doggy. Okay, but the mom was ruining the shot.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

Do you think reporters they I feel like they act like this? You don't think they would?

SPEAKER_03 57:28

Yeah, for for like the evening news, you know, uh sometimes I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 57:32

I think she was trying to, you know, get to stardom at this point.

SPEAKER_03 57:36

Maybe. I don't know. She would know, but I don't.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

This this is very realistic.

SPEAKER_01 57:40

This is exactly how it happens. I had to fucking interview people for broadcast news for many years, and this is exactly how it goes down. You're off camera, you're explaining how it works, and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it. I got I know exactly what I'm gonna fucking say, and then they just keep fucking up. They don't like stop and start over when they mess up, they just keep going or they want to talk in the background and back at the person that you're interviewing. It's a whole fucking nightmare. I thought she did a great job, and I think part of why she does such a great fucking job is because she's actually a woman who works in broadcast journalism. Like she's actually a professional in this industry that I thought she was fucking fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 58:17

I think I'm spoiled. The only time I'm used to seeing this kind of journalism is when you accidentally like switch on to your local evening news and you get the like robotic performance that we get from our newscasters here.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

Yeah, I feel like over all the vines I used to see about like funny like fake news broadcasts.

SPEAKER_03 58:37

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

Like something like that. Or maybe someone messed up and it ended up being funny and going viral. But funniest news fails.

SPEAKER_06 58:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Think about how often we prepare before the podcast and we still get to the podcast and we fuck up and we're just like talking over each other and shit. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 58:54

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 58:54

That is like what we see at at the end of the product is something that is clear, concise, it's put together, and oftentimes the sound bites that you get, they're either fucking top-notch or they're pretty mediocre, and you just kind of had to fight through that. But I thought her approach to interviewing people were was plenty realistic.

SPEAKER_05 59:15

So can we talk trash about these people in this apartment? Because they were all horrible. We'll just start with the the rogue Asian racism. I from what I saw, they were Japanese and they were pretty consistently called Chinese, I believe. And just like it was them, the friggin' gay, rude man, not a nice man at all, but his character is hilarious. He's like, My mother left, and I just still live here. Um, he was just like, they cook and do all the stuff and it's gross and they yell and blah blah blah. And then like three other people consistently like blamed them for what was going on in the house. And so that was the thing, like the racism in the middle of the movie that just like kind of kept going. Like the first time it was mentioned, it was one thing, and then it it happened a few more times, and it was just so weird and out of place to like have it continue through several characters that seem to be in like different areas and stuff, and then as like a fight or something broke out, they like yelled it again. It was just it was just a bit much, and it was it was not the move for me. I didn't like it at all.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:19

So having watched the subtitled version, I think some of that may have been like tweaked or changed because once you mentioned the racism, I figured out kind of what it was, but I think how they conveyed it in the uh non-dubbed version is the characters that you're talking about, the Asian characters, they were speaking in like broken Spanish, and you could see that like in the subtitles. Um, like you could understand what they were saying, but you could tell that like Spanish wasn't their native language. And at one point, the the mom, who was a bitch, uh just kept saying, like, no entiendo, no entiendo, like I don't understand you. Um, and that part wasn't included in the subtitles, but that was the one part where I was like, mmm, she's just pretending she can't understand this woman's pretty solid Spanish because she's being racist about it. Um so I think maybe because they couldn't do that in the dub necessarily, they might have like tweaked a couple bits of dialogue to kind of give you the same vibe.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:12

Well, I was actually reading subtitles for a portion of it.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:15

Subbed and dubbed?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:16

They just kept blaming them. That's what happened. They just kept blaming them for what was going on.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:21

That part I thought was just because they had like a sick like grandpa in there.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:24

She had her daughter that uh she had her daughter that was also sick and she didn't seem to think that was a problem. But it goes back to what we're talking about again with like COVID-19, right? And how many people faced that kind of like hardship and and racism because uh w because of all the names that COVID got uh COVID was called at the beginning of the pandemic. It's the same type of thing. Oh, you're the only people who aren't from around here, so it must be your fault if you have a sick relative. You know what I mean? It's something that even if it wasn't the intention of uh straight up racism, it's otherism.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:58

You know what I mean? It's like you're the stranger here, you don't belong here, and it's fucked up no matter which way you cut it.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:05

It's just like calling people a different name than what they are. Like in the subs, it says that they're Japanese and they're called Chinese. And so it those little things are the stuff that I was just like, I just felt kind of beat over the head with it. That that was pretty much what turned me off.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:19

Can we talk about beating over the head because the old couple talking to each other? Oh man. So she's trying to talk, tell he's like, tell tell them, you know, tell the story, right? She's talking, then he's like, Why are you uh talking over me? It's like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. First of all, she was talking, you're talking over her.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:33

Okay, but he was losing his marbles.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:35

That's kind of true.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:36

He didn't know what floor they lived on. So that was like the thing, is he was just kind of losing it, you know. There was a lot of characters happening. Like, and when I say characters, I don't mean just like general characters, but you know, when you meet someone and you're like, oh, they're a character. All of those people were in this building together.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:51

I'm just gonna throw in there that this apartment building is not unlike the apartment building from Basket Case, uh, where everyone was a caricature of a person.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:58

That's true. Another famously horrible movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:02

Kind of like the uh Sasha Baron Cohen uh police officer that we get, very deliberately incompetent. He was hot.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:08

Speaking of incompetent, though, I think you know the worst part for me is why would you be up in this apartment with all this shitty ass stuff going on? And then being like, let's play this recorder. That was the worst part for me because I thought this movie was very grounded in reality, and I know we we talked about characters, and you guys had a lot to say about it, but to me, the characters what were what brought the realness to it because yes, there are racist people, yes, there are people that are gonna blame other people, there's people that you know they're gonna cover up, even though they might not be the ones who are transferring this, and they're gonna be like, oh no, my daughter doesn't have it, and just be so it was a bunch of chaos and that in all the personalities, and that's what would happen probably in a apartment complex. I can tell you, and that probably would happen in mine. But yeah, to me, it's like okay, this is all going on, and you want to play a tape recorder, Angela. I thought you were fucking smarter than this. Like, and that's when I was like, this isn't this isn't all like this is not real anymore. It was dumb. Ay, Dios mío, she's a fucking investigative journalism, like she what what she's in Chris. You wouldn't take the tape and try to like put it in your book bag or something. What book bag? She doesn't have a book bag.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:27

Okay, you wouldn't try to leave and grab it, like grab the tape. She's trying to get some information and collect some data along the way.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:33

I just I just want to add to Alexis' point. There was just like a lot going on, and they escaped into this room, and then she was like, Oh my god, a tape recorder. We've got time for this, and like you didn't have time for it. It maybe like wasn't the best time. Also, I learned nothing from that tape recorder, but maybe there was something in Spanish that was helpful.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

There was so much to learn.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:55

Like, that's how they found out what to there was stuff, it's all the stuff I didn't like, so oh my gosh. All the long jump stuff was in there, you know. Absurd.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:06

You guys are gonna make me pick a best part since I hacked this. And um, I have to say I didn't really look into like what this movie was about. I just knew that there was going to be shaky cam um and that there was bad dubbing and subbing, so I had no idea really like what the actual subject matter was. So the best part of the movie was finding out that this was a zombie flick, and not just a zombie flick, but a zombie outbreak movie. And like I don't know why I continue to love zombie movies to this day. I don't know if there's been any that I like truly hated that were so bad. Even the bad ones, you're like, yeah, I'm down to watch this. It's just something I don't know, it's just like pulp fiction in a way. Like I we just enjoy watching it, and it was a like a pleasant surprise. And the story they give us, I'm actually down with it. It was very like Resident Evil. I'm here for it. Um, although it was hard to like stomach watching the movie, I am curious how the story plays out over time. Because zombie outbreak films are interesting. And that's just a hell I'll die on.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:06

You know, I'm actually gonna go with something quite similar. There was like a set of things. I'll give you a set of the best things about this movie, okay? First is it ending up being a zombie movie when I didn't plan for it to be or expect it to be. Second is the setting for the zombie movie. I think the apartment that they are locked in, having the cops outside, like they find out about an outbreak kind of thing, all of that, very interesting. Like the way they got there, although maybe questionable, but I I think it seems pretty realistic to do like a ride along with some firefighters. It seems like something that would happen. And it was very interesting for them to be there with all these people, with you know, some people that were kind of on their side versus like the cops that were pissed that they were there recording, that kind of thing. And then, of course, at the end, like the effects of Javier just being such a creepy dude. And my very last best part of this movie is how insane the zombies are once these people turn. They were going ham. These were not slow zombies, these were a murderous, like attacking, like we're out here doing stuff, they would disappear. Like, they weren't really getting killed in this movie. We really saw a lot of zombies live through a lot of things, and I thought that was one of the best parts. That was one of the things that cut me in because they were so interesting to watch. Also scary.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:22

Ryan, that was a long list of best parts. I'm proud of you.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:27

I'm nothing if not balanced.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:29

And Mac, I too don't understand why you still love all the zombie movies to this day.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:33

Because they're all so different, they're literally all the same.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:36

Every single one is the same. I couldn't disagree more.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:39

Okay, but let's say like you went to five different burger places and they all had like fairly decent burgers. Uh, you wouldn't care. You'd be like, I just want a burger, and right now that tastes good.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:48

Okay, but instead of burgers, it's like, I don't know, fish taco paste. I don't know. Something I don't like because burgers is good. Burgers is good. Let me get to my best part. It's basic. The best part of this movie is obviously the spooky naked bitch at the end that I did not recognize as being a man named Javier, like everybody else seemed to. I just saw that as a spooky naked woman giving boob, giving like really long, skinny body, and I was like, that that part.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:15

Prosthetic little saggy tits.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:17

I I thought she was CGI the first time, you know, because we're sitting there, we're watching it, she shows up, and I'm looking at that going, oh, that's CGI. Really? This late in the game, we're gonna get CGI. And then we like see a little bit more, and I was like, wait a second, is that CGI though?

SPEAKER_05 1:08:30

I don't want to sound cooler than I am. I did not know it wasn't CGI. And also, I'm calling Javier by his first name, like we're real cool like that, because I don't want to mispronounce his last name. So let me not act like I like I didn't know that before we started this podcast, Paris. I just found that out here together, but now I do know who he is and I do recognize him. So I'm like, oh, Javier's in here. That was great. I didn't know that at the time. I just thought it was some cool skinny chick, and maybe CGI, but it was amazing. I know that lanky frame anywhere. It's really the hip bones, the lanky hip bones. That's what's creepy.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:02

That is creepy. I would say my worst part are the underwear that was on that lanky body.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:07

That was some they look like my dad's granny panties. So lived in, though. You guys said she's been living there forever.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:17

So lived in.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:19

Lived and deceased in. You're telling me a zombie's doing laundry. That's what y'all want me to think.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:24

It's not actually the worst part of this movie. It's just gross. So I just want to say that I thought it was gross.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:29

That's why they sent the dude in the hazmat in, because you could smell the panties all the way from downstairs.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:33

But on more serious note, the worst part for me really is the lack of availability for the Spanish language version to be rented in an easily accessible place. And that's honestly because I actually really loved this movie. It's sure imperfect, but I can't even sit like sit here and really consider a single thing that I could think. This is the moment where it all fell apart. If this were removed or this was fixed, it'd be a perfect 10 out of 10. I really enjoyed it. No complaints here. And I will say that immediately after this podcast, I will be watching Wreck 2. I'm I am open to re-watching this movie in the future. It's not gonna be for a little while, but I think if I find myself in a zombie mood, I'll put this on again.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:20

I, for one, have watched this movie too many times and it has not aged well for me personally. However, if you have not seen this, listeners, you should watch it at least once. I think for me, I've just seen it so much that it's lost its impact and it's become diluted. But if for a first watch, definitely check this out. I'll never watch this again. No, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:40

Wow. Okay. Well, I definitely will. Probably sometime in the near future, because I'm like, oh, I want to watch uh two, three, and four now. Yeah, it's gonna be a no for me, dog.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:49

Well, it looks like Alexis and I can at least bond over this together, but for now, let's see what value Matt can add to us in fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:57

Number one. The final scenes of the movie were filmed in just enough light for the actors to move around the apartment, then processed during post-production to look like night vision.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:06

Sure, that sounds great.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:07

I'm gonna say fiction. I bet they were shot in complete darkness because it was very dark. But also, Angela could at least hear Pablo's voice, so her pretending she was reaching in every direction was unrealistic.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:17

She definitely was not faking.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:21

So are you with Paris on this?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:22

Yes, I'm with Paris.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:24

Okay. It is a fiction. Uh, they were actually filmed in darkness using the magic of infrared. Um, so good on the actors to be able to make it look real because it was real.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:33

You know, I should have thought about that harder. Because it's really hard to think about what infrared feels like, or like that night vision thing, unless you're in it. Because it is blackness.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:41

That's true. Number two, the moment when the fireman fell from the stairwell was kept hidden from the actors, so all of them had truly shocked reactions.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:48

Fact.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:49

I'm gonna say fiction because I feel like there were a couple actors near that body and they would have to know about this. And also I feel like that's a really difficult thing to keep secret.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:58

Fact.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:58

Oh, Alexis, you are correct. Why is this a fact? Because they didn't know what was going to happen. Which is honestly the best way to really help your actor's mental health. So, yeah, they did this in a way that would surprise as many actors as they could, and then captured it on film and used it to make money.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:14

Could you imagine? Whoa shit, someone just fell from up there.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:18

Number three. When asked about their casting decisions, the directors claim they chose relative unknowns, not due to budget, but to give the film a more realistic feel.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:27

You know, I'm just gonna keep going fact.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:29

I don't know, I feel like both can be true, both budget and more realistic. I'll say fix. Fact?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:37

Yeah, Chris actually mentioned that this is what it seemed like earlier in the episode, and that's because this is a fact. They also said they picked people with good improv skills, so I'm waiting for their Netflix sketch comedy special to come out. Number four, the film was shot in chronological order, and several actors complained that the script was seemingly being written as filming progressed, so they struggled to get time to rehearse their lines.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:57

I'm I'm gonna once again go fact, because it seems like the it's a realistic thing. They were just rolling.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:03

Everyone in the chat is saying fact, everything's been a fact, I'm gonna say fiction.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:07

I think we'll say fiction too. I feel like you'd write your story, not as it's, you know, going through.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:13

Yeah, so this is a fiction. Yes, it was shot chronologically, but the actors were never given enough of the script to know what happened to their characters in advance, sometimes as late as like the day of filming. So they weren't lazy, they didn't write it as they went, but they just didn't let you read it until it was time.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:29

So the gist was a fact, but the vibe.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:31

It was a it was yeah, it was a factful vibe. And number five, although the building appears rather large, the most expensive piece of the set that was built was the final attic apartment.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:40

Fact.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:41

Fiction.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:42

Oh, now we gotta play a game of like, would you do more than one fiction during all your facts for the night?

SPEAKER_06 1:13:47

Fiction because that lobby was clearly the big set piece.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:51

I'm just gonna say fiction.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:53

Uh it's a fiction because you're all suckers. There were no sets built for this. They only filmed on real locations.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:58

I don't think that question makes sense, but I'm gonna let you rock. I feel like you played us.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:02

Wait, but I thought that too. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:05

Welcome to his trickery. And then I was like, do they get to write off the cost of building a building?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:11

Uh that's been fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:13

Well, there you have it, folks. Wreck from 2007, as chosen and dictated by our patrons, has earned three hacks and two slashes. Now we've certainly had a robust discussion here, but it doesn't end here by any means. We want to know what you think. Did you prefer this film or its American remake? Let us know. You can join in on the conversation by hanging out with us for free in our Discord. You can click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:36

And if you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons, like Nico and Amy. You can visit patreon.com slash hackerslash to enjoy more of the show with early access, extended episodes, bonus content, and live shows.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:50

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, we have to let everyone know what's going on here. Bye.