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I am going to say something controversial. The gamechangers that have shaped the zombie genre are well known to us all (White Zombie the first, Night of the Living Dead making it about survival, Dawn of the Dead making it large, 28 Days Later making it scary and giving us running infected, Shaun of the Dead making it funny, The Walking Dead making it mainstream TV and World War Z making it an A lister movie) but I am going to put forward this, the 2007 Spanish REC as a potential addition to that list. Why? Well sure, there were found footage movies before it, most will say Blair Witch Project of 1999 was the first but I would say Cannibal Holocaust was a pioneer in horror. But REC, in 2007, has been copied so many times, with the final shot of the lead being dragged back into darkness, that I would say this should take it's place in that list. If Shaun can be there with a simple zombie movie story, but is there as it was the first genuinely funny zombie comedy that others try to emulate, then REC was the first found footage zombie movie and now we have them coming out of the woodwork.

It follows Angela Vidal as young reporter for a lesser known show and her cameraman (I still have issues with just how useless cameramen are in horror movies, just filming rather than helping) as they head with a fire crew to a claustrophobic apartment building where an elderly woman is trapped in her flat. Angela is in the second and concluding movies, so her arc is pretty awesome, and much better than Alice in the Paul WS Anderson Resident Evil franchise movies.

And of course it all goes terribly wrong. Lots of face biting, blood, infection, screaming fast moving infected, lots of Spaniards shouting over the top of each other, as the authorities lock them in for 76 hectic minutes. There are some great bits, not least the final shot, and the mother being handcuffed and them not being able to do anything about it.

I do love the REC movies, I would say they are the most consistently good series of movies, and we have plenty in the genre. All four are good and definitely worth watching. Copied by the Americans with Quarantine, with its own spin-off sequel in Terminal. I would recommend them all. And am more than happy to be watching REC2 next.

7/10