[REC]

[REC] was directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, two of the most established figures in Spanish horror cinema, and produced by the Barcelona-based Filmax, at that point the largest horror studio in Spain. Released in late 2007, it became one of the most internationally successful Spanish-language horror films of the 2000s. It spawned three sequels and an American remake, Quarantine, which landed in theatres almost simultaneously with the original's US release.

Manuela Velasco won the Goya for Best New Actress for the lead role. She had been cast partly because of her real-life background as a TV presenter, which gave the film's framing device an unusual authenticity. It also won Best Spanish Film at the Sitges Catalan Film Festival in 2007 and earned a Saturn Award nomination for Best International Film. Pablo Rosso shot it on handheld digital cameras, almost entirely inside a single Barcelona apartment building.

We think it is one of the high points of the found-footage horror cycle that followed Blair Witch, alongside Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity, and its reputation has only grown over the years. Academic genre studies now treat the original [REC] as a turning point for Spanish horror's international reach, one that opened the door for the global success of figures like J. A. Bayona, Guillem Morales and Rodrigo Cortés in the years that followed.