[Rec]

Ther[Rec]'s something about zombies that has caught moviegoers' imagination in the last years - something to do with the fear of viral epidemics and social breakdown, probably.

A zombie's major handicap would traditionally be its speed, or the lack of it. Danny Boyle got around this by giving them a fuel-injection of adrenaline in 28 Days Later, to George Romero's reported disdain. The undead in [Rec] aren't particularly quick on their feet. But it's no longer an issue when everyone is locked into the same six-storey apartment block.

What the movie loses in breathing room, it more than gains in intensity.

Like Cloverfield and Diary of the Dead (not forgetting The Blair Witch Project) it's a camcorder "I-witness" horror. Angela and her cameraman Pablo are shooting a soft entertainment reality show, "While You Are Sleeping". Tonight, they're hanging out at a Barcelona fire station.

For a long while it looks like the show will be a yawn. Nothing is happening. Finally there is a call. An old woman has locked herself in her flat and won't come out. Angela and Pablo gratefully go along for the ride, and watch as two firemen and a couple of cops break into the apartment. The old lady is covered in blood and apparently out of her mind.

She assaults the officers, biting one of them in the neck. When they attempt to evacuate the wounded man to safety they find the entire building has been sealed off. No one will be allowed to leave until an emergency medical team gives the all-clear. That's bad news for the half dozen families trapped in the building. For Angela, though, it's something of a scoop. That is, if she gets out of here alive.

Manuela Velasco, who plays Angela, is admirably perky in the circumstances (she scarcely seems old enough to have made her first feature film appearance in Almodovar's Law of Desire). As for poor old Pablo, he barely gets a look in. It's a necessary convention of this modern form of filmmaking that the cameraman keeps on shooting regardless of the horrors breathing down his neck.

Written and directed by Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza, [Rec] is marred by a few holes. The speed with which the authorities respond to the possible contagion is certainly impressive. Arguably it's part of the point that the civil liberties of those trapped in the building are trampled in the name of security, but in a real emergency you would expect them to be removed from the danger zone and put in isolation rather than fend for themselves.

The climactic explanation comes out of leftfield - it's a very Catholic spin on zombie lore - but it begs as many questions as it answers.

Not that it matters. [Rec] hooks us with its pretty heroine then reels us in with calm expertise as anticipation starts to mount. When mayhem breaks out it's thrillingly perverse. The objects of horror here are completely unexpected. Somehow it's twice as creepy when it's someone who looks like your gran chomping on a policeman's neck.

Thereafter, the filmmakers oscillate between moments of calm and terror with such sangfroid you might feel the urge to cheer them on - except your heart will probably be in your mouth most of the time.

Grisly and grotesque, [Rec] is a more visceral horror film than The Orphanage, but it's every bit as scary. A US remake (Quarantine) is already in the offing, but with Hollywood's dire track record of ripping off foreign chillers there is no reason to wait.

Tom Charity
tom.charity@lovefilm.com