"Until the zombies do us apart"

Title: [Rec] ³ Genesis ([Rec] ³ Génesis)
Year: 2012
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Director: Paco Plaza
Writer: Paco Plaza, Luis Berdejo
Runtime: 80min
Cast: Leticia Dolera, Diego Martín, Mireia Ros, Ismael Martínez, Emilio Mencheta, Álex Monner, Javier Botet, Ana Isabel Velásquez, Blai Llopis, Itziar Castro, Claire Baschet, Xavier Ruano, Borja Glez. Santaolalla
Produc.: Canal+ España, Filmax, Ono, Rec Génesis A.I.E., Televisió de Catalunya (TV3), Televisión Española (TVE)
Budget: €4 million approx.

In [Rec] ³ Genesis, what had began as a beautiful wedding, for the bride and the groom, Koldo (Diego Martínez) and Clara (Leticia Dolera), will soon go to hell, when the guests get infectted by a virus.

Paco Plaza has undertaken, this year, to show us why the word "sequel" is so often frowned upon. 

If we went back to 2007, we would see an example of when, filming in the style of The Blair Witch Proyect, and getting in between a few living dead, did make sense. Throw in addition, that everything was going to happen in a quarantined building, what made the conditions for causing us fear, quite suitable. 

With [Rec] ², released two years later, the scenario would be the same, only changing the main characters. Now the leading role was granted to a SWAT team that, equipped, both with weapons as with cameras with night vision, entered the building to clean up the threat. 

This sequel would also have a dose of suspense and surprises, but that would not approach the level achieved before. However much the directors try to give to it an adequate pace, the idea itself was lacking of novelty, and it was relatively easy, to know what was coming and at what moments. On top of this, now religious elements, such as possession and crucifixes, had also been blended. Thus, the film had indeed got its good things, but only to some extent. 

Between the second and the third part, the timeout would lengthen, and to see what would be a film with some variations. To begin with, Plaza and Balagueró do no longer direct as a duet, but now it has been left to the hands of the first one. As if this were not enough, the screenplay is not provided by three individuals. Now, only two of them write it. Meanwhile, Balagueró has chosen, this time, to produce. 

To speak of the result, I guess would be to make reference to what for many has come to be as a real disappointment. It happens that [Rec] ³ has more of Robert Rodriguez´s Grindhouse, than of a true horror movie. With scenes like that, in which Clara, with her innocent and beautiful wedding dress, is filled with fury to gut zombies with a chainsaw (which appears precisely, in the place and right time), and which is more to enjoy laughing, with some friends, than to cover the eyes. 

I am not saying that the movie is bad. Moreover, if we forgot that it is indeed a sequel, it is likely that there would not be so many complaints. But then the problem comes from that side. [Rec] ³ "is" a sequel. One that fails miserably, not being able to continue with an already established aesthetic, which was what the fans were looking for. 

Paco Plaza replaces suspense, with guts and more blood. He is not even able to stay in the pose, that what we see is only what the characters shoot with their available cameras. Something that happens, only at the beginning, which lasts short, and that makes the title itself, meaningless. 

The action, as I already said, takes place in the setting of a marriage, starting shortly after the moment of union between the couple and before God, in a church, and with the great importance that takes the priest, afterwards. Here, Plaza has decided to continue deepening into religious matter, and that the almighty, is in all this, not exempt of some blame. In fact, it is enough to consider the other part of the title. 

Apart from all this analysis, if there is something to highlight, that would be Clara, the bride. Character played by Leticia Dolera, and which, once she has cried, got her makeup run, got covered in blood, got the chainsaw set in motion and got rid, so rudely, of part of her dress, she is quite unique. A magnificent and bizarre combinaton, between the "loss of innocence" and the "rebellious woman". A girl who does not hesitate a moment in cutting off the head of one of the guests, freshly bitten, when, being this, still alive and conscious, they both know it is just a matter of time. 

My rating: 5/10

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