Rec 3: Genesis (2012)
All is good with the world!! The other day I watched Pascal Laugier’s new film, THE TALL MAN, and last night I watched Paco Plaza’s REC 3: GENESIS. As the title suggests, this is the third outing in the REC franchise and I was both eager and hesitant for part three to drop. Eager because I wanted to see where the franchise would go next, and hesitant because I absolutely loved part two and was worried they couldn’t match the energy, gore, and overall kickass-ness of it (is that a word?). So, is REC 3: GENESIS a worthy follow up to the previous two entries?
The main difference with REC 3 is that Plaza is working solo here. Plaza’s REC 1 and 2 partner, Jaume Balagueró, sat this one out and will (supposedly) be helming the fourth and final REC film, REC 4: APOCALYPSE. Last year when news dropped about the third and fourth REC films being divided up by their creators, we were led to believe that part three, “Genesis,” would delve into the origin of the plague and the final installment, “Apocalypse,” would show the disastrous global effects of the plague. But that’s not exactly what we get with GENESIS. The story here revolves around the beautiful Clara (Leticia Dolera) and Koldo (Diego Martin) on the most important and special day of their lives — their wedding day. What starts out as one of their best days quickly devolves into a shit storm of blood, gore, and abject survival as the infection we’ve all come to know and love spreads throughout the wedding party quicker than the Bride’s Maid’s legs!!
The couple that slays together stays together!! Clara (Leticia Dolera) & Koldo (Diego Martin)
During the long pre-credit opening we meet the bride and groom and the rest of the main cast. During this time everyone’s having a great time, mingling, drinking, and just generally having a good time. In a key exchange that could easily be missed, Uncle Victor (Emilio Mencheta), who’s walking around like the cock of the walk, has his hand bandaged up. Koldo asks his what happened and Victor tells him he was at the pound when he was bitten by a dog “that looked like it was dead.” Yes, old Uncle Victor is patient zero for the infection which he most generously spreads to every and anyone he can get his teeth into.
“… ya know mom, if I knew you were gonna be this way, I’d never have invited you to my wedding…”
The entire pre-credit sequence was shot in POV/cinema verité style, of the wedding videographer and a kid with a video recorder. But as soon as the opening credits are over, the filming style switches to a traditional-shot film. I liked this touch and felt it stayed true to the spirit of the REC franchise. The first film was shot POV-style by a documentarian who’s following around the fire department. The second one is shot from the perspective of the SWAT team sent into the quarantined building. These scenarios made sense that the camera would keep rolling even in the face of danger, but in the third outing it would have been silly to think that some kid with a video camera would continue filming after the shit hit the fan and his life was in danger. Nice touch.
During the early stages of the outbreak during the wedding reception, Clara and Koldo get separated. So part of the plot is about survival and part is about the two newlyweds finding each other. The two find themselves in all kinds of hairy situations, from claustrophobic tunnels to wide open fields; nowhere is safe.
REC 3: GENESIS really doesn’t do much to explain the origins of the virus/infection. We know Victor was bit by a dog he thought looked dead, but how did this seemingly rabies-based infection morph into a religious plague? This is never explained and I was disappointed that an explanation was never offered. “Genesis,” it turns out, doesn’t refer to the fact that part three is going to be an origin story; “Genesis” refers to the first book in the bible (that’s all I’ll say so as not to give too much away).
This is one sexy shot!!
But where REC 3: GENESIS fails in filling us in on the origin of the plague/infection, it excels at in energy and overall badass-ness (again; is that a word?). Both Koldo and Clara become serious zombie ass-kickers (I know, I know … they really aren’t zombies) and when Clara uses her chainsaw to cut away part of her wedding dress for more mobility, well I instantly fell in love. We get lots of violence and gore in the second half of the film and if you enjoy seeing people split in two right down the middle, then you’re in luck. There’s also no safety for any of the characters. It gets established pretty early on that anyone can die at any time.
Like I always say; blood takes a beautiful woman & makes her incredibly sexy!!
REC 3: GENESIS is overall a really fun film. There aren’t too many scares in it like REC 2, but it has a really fun energy, great performances, and really juicy gore. I was definitely disappointed with a lack of explanation as to how the infection began and then transformed into a religious plague, but I found myself having way too much fun to linger on this point. REC 3 is a standalone film in the franchise that doesn’t have too much originality or do much to progress the series, but is simply a really fun entry. Recommended for sure.
My Summary:
Director: Paco Plaza
Plot: 3 out of 5 stars
Gore: 7 out of 10 skulls
Zombie Mayhem: 0 out of 5 brains
Reviewed by Scott Shoyer
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[...] GENESIS. The film is directed by Plaza and is written by Plaza, Luiso Berdejo, and David Gallart (my review here). This new artwork is from Tony Moore (THE WALKING DEAD) and it’s pretty kick ass!! Check it [...]
While I am disappointed that we don’t get anymore clues to the mystery of this plague, I am still planning on watching this one based soley on the fact that the first two were incredibly awesome! I also will hold out hope that in the last installment we will get some sort of clue as to what is really going on here. Can hardly wait for this one either!
I was a little let down but overall it’s a fantastic flick!!
This film is freaking awesome!!! I had sooo much fun, from start to finish. Really good action, a couple of nice bit of suspense and defiantly loads of good gore. Dude her arm!
… Ok I know DAY OF THE DEAD did it but geez it was way cooler here.
My only real issue with this is that this film doesn’t feel like a REC movie, it feels more like a spin off film set in the REC universe. REC 1 & 2 are both really serious films, and show how I think people would generally act in that kind of situation in a very believable way (with maybe the exception of those fucking retarded kids from the 2nd one) GENESIS on the other hand is much sillier with many more jokes and many more movie cliché’s. Ok the bit where she cuts her dress open with the chain saw and then the music kicks in is really badass but I think we pretty much all know that that would never really happen. I found the fact that it is not shot all in POV style a bit weird as well. Although I’m in complete agreement with you about the bit where the kid is like “I need to film this, people have a right to know what’s going on,” and then Koldo is like “fuck that shit!” and smashes the camera. Nice touch indeed.
I’m also totally with you about them not really going into as much detail about the origins of the religious plague, it would have been nice to see more. I did however like how they played up that the infected weren’t zombies but possessed people in this film. Things like being hurt by holy water and being stunned by quoted scripture were nice touches I thought. Also the news report from the originals in the background… very cool.
Just because I am who I am, I feel I need to point out the major plot hole at the beginning of the movie. Where do all those possessed come from? The Uncle make sense because he is patent zero, but as soon as he attacks his first victim there are suddenly shit loads there… what the hell? I actually initially thought since the Government knew that the Uncle was fucked anyway the decided to release a bunch of possessed into the party just to see what happened. I was actually waiting for the protagonists to discover this for a large chuck of the film but no it’s clearly established that all the possessed are those people that were actually invited to the party. Oh well it fits into the general silliness of the movie I suppose.
Again really loved this movie and it defiantly I’m not saying that the silliness is bad in this film. In fact I think GENESIS makes it work very well for the over all tone of the film. I just hope that for the final instalment we can go more to the more serious tone and more believable characters and character actions. Still GENESIS was a hell of a lot of fun and I’ll be watching it again very soon I think
REC 3 definitely strays from the 1st 2 films, but I’m glad they took that chance. It really paid off!!
In terms of GENESIS as a film I agree complacently with you, cause this movie was freaking awesome. In terms of REC as a series I feel this remains to be seen. Don’t get me wrong I like a bit of silliness and it works very very well in this film but I also like believable characters who do believable things which REC 1 & 2 did really really well, in fact I’d say one of the best of all time (with the exception of those fucking retarded kids from the 2nd one).
My point being that the tonal shift is sooooo different from REC 2 to GENESIS. It’s a bit like the tonal shift between BATMAN RETURNS and BATMAN FOREVER. They just felt like movies from a complacently different franchise. Sure it work well at the time (although BATMAN FOREVER is a film which has really not aged well) but then we got BATMAN & ROBIN. I’m pretty sure BATMAN RETURNS (which I always really liked btw) was starting to look pretty good after that.
I’d like to wait and see what REC: APOCALYPSE delivers before I judge whether GENESIS was a good move for the franchise or not.
I think REC 3 was good for the franchise, but it just didn’t do much in that way of explaining the origins of the virus (or is it a religious ‘thing’?). I mean cone on … the film is titled GENESIS!! Lol