Textual Analysis for Horror

Name of film: REC. (2007)

It is a Spanish horror film. It is about a television reporter, Ángela Vidal, and her cameraman, Pablo, who cover the night shift in one of Barcelona's local fire stations for the fictional documentary television series While You Sleep. The firehouse receives a call from an apartment building about a woman who is trapped. When they arrive, the police break down the door, with Ángela and Pablo recording their actions. The woman becomes extraordinarily aggressive and bites one of the policemen.

A health inspector wearing a hazmat suit arrives and attempts to treat the injured, who become fiercely violent despite their critical injuries. The health inspector explains that the time the disease takes to cause sickness depends on blood type. The health inspector also reveals that, sometime during the previous day, a dog with the illness was taken to the veterinarian; the dog became violent and attacked and killed other pets at the clinic. The dog was euthanized, and was traced back to the apartment building. The inspector tells the distraught residents that this unknown but virulent disease is infecting people, causing them to turn into bloodthirsty savages. More and more people in the building become infected, and Ángela and Pablo are forced to fight them off.

At the end of the film, Pablo tries to escape, but trips and is viciously attacked by the girl, making Pablo drop the camera. Ángela picks it up and runs, only to trip and drop the camera as well. She searches for it but is unable to find it. The camera continues to record as the screams of the infected girl are heard on the tape recorder and Ángela is dragged into the darkness, screaming.

The text style in the opening of REC. is black background screen and white words.It is the most common style in the horror film. In the opening sequence, there have a relax mood that seems it is just a television programme and not a horror film. The story is go on natural and all the things are happened unexpectedly.

REC. looks like a recorded video and the method of filming is fresh. Its not like the common horror film. Even it had the common elements of the horror film, for example, screaming, breathing sound, bloodsucker, darkness environment, etc. But the filming method is difference to the normal one.

Moreovers, the shots of the film are real, it is because the camera was just hold by the cameraman Pablo’s hand. Whenever, they were running, the camera followed to shake by their movements.Also,the main location of the story is in the old building. And, the environment is always being dark. Dark environment makes audience cant see the shot clearly. And, when there had a suddenly screaming, it makes the audience really scary.

It is a really good horror film. After looking it, it still have a deep memories in audience’s mind. And ,at the end of the film, it hadn’t told us what is the ending of the story. Is Ángela died? What will the people do who are stay outside the old building? It has many questions that make the audiences to think about.