Spanish TV reporter Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) is rescued from the infected apartment block by military-type Guzman (Paco Manzanedo). The next morning they wake up quarantined on a ship, poked and prodded by scientists looking for signs of the infection. However, Guzman soon discovers through one of his comrades (who is also on board), that scientists have a vial of infected blood. Some genius decides to inject a monkey with said infected blood, and said monkey gets all rabid, escapes its holding cell, and runs completely amok on the ship. Meanwhile, it appears that Angela might have something inside of her too!
A sizeable improvement over the deathly dull “[REC] 3: Genesis” (from “[REC]” co-director Paco Plaza) and the massively disappointing “[REC] 2”, this 2015 sequel from director Jaume Balaguero (who co-directed the first two films) and his co-writer Manu Diez (co-writer of “[REC] 2”) still doesn’t approach the heights of the first “[REC]”, one of the best in the ‘found footage’ subgenre to date. Basically “[REC]” on a boat, I guess you could call this “The [REC] of the Mary Deare”. That joke would be hilarious if you were a nerd like me. Sigh.
It’s good to see original actress Manuela Velasco back here, though since her character has gone to hell and back, she’s no longer the perky, adorkable delight she was in the first film. This time around she’ll remind you of Sigourney Weaver in “Alien 3” (as will the film itself, which also borrows elements from John Carpenter’s “The Thing”) crossed with Linda Hamilton in “T-2”. Velasco is just as good as ever, just not as cutesy, and that’s by design. As was the case in the first film, you instantly care about this woman. Not so much the rest of the characters (some of whom have been in previous entries in the series), who are a mostly sleazy lot, really. A lead character you care about is vital, but supporting characters you care about help a lot too, so it’s a shame the film doesn’t give us any.
The plot is fairly standard, but the performances are mostly fine, and the FX are pretty good too. Disease/virus-infected monkeys seem a bit of a cliché these days, but boy is that a good makeup job in one very memorable scene. Yucky, but well-done. I also must commend cinematographer Pablo Rosso (who worked on all three previous entries) for giving us the best camerawork of the series thus far (in conjunction with those actually operating the camera, of course). Yes, it even exceeds the original in that respect, perhaps because this one’s not really a ‘found footage’ film at all. One big thing the film lacks that the original definitely had, is that this film isn’t remotely scary or even tense. Nope, not even a little bit, and it’s obviously a problem. Also, why give the film a subtitle like ‘Apocalypse’ when it’s set entirely in the confined space of a boat? Yeah, it’s because someone thought the word ‘Apocalypse’ was totally cool and all. Still, this is very watchable, not something you could say about the previous two instalments, which were tedious. More interesting (and sympathetic) supporting characters, and this one might’ve actually been worth a recommendation, but as is, I cannot in good faith afford it one.
OVERALL SUMMARY
It’s nice and gory, and Velasco is terrific, but the film is just borderline OK at best. It’s a shame that the plot is nothing new (even for the fourth entry in a series) and that aside from Manuela Velasco’s reporter, none of the characters really pop (Unless the monkey counts?). Nice try guys, but this one’s not quite up to snuff I’m afraid.
