Going through some of my old downloads.  I mostly don't steal on the internet, but two films I have used bit torrent to get were [REC] and [REC] 2.

I had been anticipating [REC] for a while, but it had been out in Europe for almost a year and there was no US release date for the feature film or the DvD.  It turned out the reason why was the release of the American remake, Quarantine.

Fortunately, I downloaded [REC] before I saw Quarantine.  The Spanish film was so much better that the remake wasn't even in the same zip code as the original.  The Spanish film was over 20 minutes shorter, had no bullshit filler, was superbly acted, and was hair raising from beginning to end.

I couldn't get the subtitles to download properly, but I didn't mind blowing it off.  My Spanish is pretty good and I didn't think it was going to be a dialog heavy film.  The only trouble I had was with distorted voices.  The police announcements over megaphone were unintelligible to me.  The worst part was the reel to reel tape player at the end that summarized the entire plot was garbled.  I couldn't make it out. 

*SPOILERS* 

On the tape, in the Spanish film, you find out the zombie outbreak was started when a secret agent from the Vatican kidnapped a teen girl who was demonically possessed and did experiments on her.  It turned out that the agency by which the demons occupied the bodies was in the blood.  These weren't the undead, the bodies were being ridden around by actual demons from Hell.  Possession is like a virus and just as contagious.

In the American film, it was terrorists making a virulent form of super rabies.

*SPOILERS END*

That being said, I have no idea how the American sequel is going to work.  The Spanish sequel pretty much can be used as a benchmark for how a horror sequel should be made.  One innovation is the use of the Spanish SWAT team's camera helmets that give the feeling of a first person shooter through some parts of the film. 

It is a fantastic film.  There is no bullshit, tied up with a bow American ending.  You should see the first film for the second one to make sense too.  The two films completely flow into each other.

I'm a fan of the horror genre, which is too bad for me because it is so rarely done well.  I hate that I have to almost exclusively watch international films to see a good horror story now.  Here in the US, we can crank out romantic comedies and children's films all day long, but if you want a good horror film, we have to go to Europe.  Here in Vegas, there aren't even proper venues for foriegn or independent film.