[REC] 4: Apocalypse (2014)

[REC] 4: Apocalypse

IMDB rate: 5,4

Genre: Zombie

Starring: Manuela Velasco, Paco Manzanedo, Héctor Colomé

My rate: 4/10

Ever since watching the first [REC] movie I became a pretty big fan of the series, loved the sequel and was even more amazed by the third part. I know, I know, everyone hates the third part, but I really liked it a lot. I have been looking out to the final part of the series ever since hearing there would be a third and fourth part, so I guess you can say I was so excited when it was finally being released. Unfortunately, Apocalypse ended up being the most disappointing movie in the [REC] series. I must add though that the subtitles were a bit messed up, so I might have missed some important stuff, but I honestly doubt that :).

The first [REC] movie was one of the movies (along with Paranormal Activity) to bring life to the found-footage/mockumentary genre again, ever since of course the magnificent Blair Witch Project. The first [REC] movie was simply brilliant, frightening and awesome. The sequel continued [REC] and brought a whole other meaning to it by adding other dimensions, possessions and other religious explanations. The third part was not in that same apartment building anymore, it plays on a wedding and this is also where they dropped the mockumentary effect (in a brilliant way I can say). They continued even more on the religious part of the movie. The fourth part... was simply boring. The religious part is entirely dropped for some reason and now they're claiming this all happens because of a parasite.

Sure, a parasite, not a bad idea at all, but it is when building up on possessions and religious stuff for three parts were apparently for nothing. The [REC] movies were always interesting and fairly original, but when watching the fourth part it is as watching any other B-Horror movie. It was filled with stupid plots like we see in every other movie, there was just nothing special about this movie anymore. Honestly, it felt like [REC] took their inspiration from Quarantine 2: Terminal this time.

The way I hoped [REC] 4 to be was that it literally led to an apocalypse, like the name suggests. The first outbreak is in an apartment building, so still on a very small scale. The third movie is already a bit bigger, this being in a park, so already in the outside world. With Apocalypse I just hoped that it would be on an immense scale, where many people were getting infected. Instead it plays on a boat. Yes, a goddamn boat. What's the scary thing about that? When it outbreaks there's only a fairly small amount of people that will die, not exciting at all. The only tensive thing about the boat is that the rooms are very small, so it's a bit claustrophobic.

While the make-up was again amazing looking, the special effects were very disappointing. The bunch of monkeys made me laugh rather than scared. They were incredibly fake looking. The acting was a bit disappointing as well in this part, it seemed forced and it was as if I was watching one of those soap-dramas on television rather than a good movie. It's crazy because in the first and second part of [REC] Manuela Velasco didn't too bad, while in the fourth part she was just disappointing. 

[REC] 4 was an absolute disappointment as a conclusion for these series. It made the third part seem like a spin-off because Angela's character wasn't in it, or it made it seem like the fourth part was just some dumb sequel without any purpose. The scale of this outbreak was way too small, the building towards religious purposes seemed to be for nothing and the movie was just simply boring. Too bad that this brilliant series must end with a disappointment like this.