REC 4: Apocalypse Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

REC 4: Apocalypse Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 28, 2021

This Blu-ray release of 'REC 4: Apocalypse' is currently only available in a four-film boxed set with 'REC,' 'REC 2,' and 'REC 3: Genesis.'

REC 4 bears the fruit of a franchise on the downward spiral. It scraps the structure that made the first two films a success (the third film followed a hybrid approach) but returns the original film's protagonist into the fold in an effort to better connect with audiences who might be wondering why things have changed from the fresh and energetic opening films to a more traditional genre picture here. This is not a bad movie at all. It's generic, certainly, and adds little to the Zombie-type genre-at-large, but as a REC film it's more like a distant cousin with a closer relative showing up for good measure. It plays well enough as gory entertainment but is so far removed from the pace and place and presentation that made the first two films such enormous successes that the picture can't help but to be dampened a bit, even if everything is in good working order beyond.

The film circles back to the original with a series of audio news reports concerning the events as depicted in REC and comes full circle to the original when it reintroduces Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) following her six-hour ordeal in the building. She’s rescued and awakens to find herself in a medical facility on board a mysterious ship populated with others who remember little of their encounters with the infected. It turns out it’s a research vessel that is conducting experiments with the same dangerous pathogen that made Angela's life a living hell. When a test subject monkey is loosed on the ship and infects one of the crew, a deadly chain of events is set into motion that once again sees Angela and her fellow uninfected forced to fend off an increasingly powerful throng of ravenous infected that operate at only one speed: relentless.

As with (the majority of) REC 3, REC 4 was filmed in a more traditional photographic style, leaving behind the shaky first-person perspective that defined the series’ two best films. The result is a more structured, familiar, maybe even generic film that doesn’t have much of an identity going for it beyond returning Angela Vidal to a role of prominence. But even if it takes place in the same “universe” it’s hardly the same “style.” That’s not necessarily a detriment nor should it a deterrent to watch, but the film does sacrifice style for accessibility and can’t find a meaningful purpose to exist on the franchise fringes. At least REC 3 did the hybrid thing in something of a self-aware spinoff style. This, for as effectively entertaining as it may be, just feels like an opportunity to make any old Horror movie, tweak it a bit to make it “fit” into RECWorld and call it good.

This is also a slowly developing film. Unlike the first two, which drop the viewer into the action almost immediately, REC 4 makes a very deliberate effort to set a rather involved stage for such a small space and for a franchise that made its name on “fast” and “relentless.” Indeed, The movie’s purpose seems as much to evolve and explore the world as to douse the screen in blood and push on ahead with the familiar cadence, to take time to really build its characters from a position of stability rather than just throw a new movie with mostly new faces into the same frenzied style as seen before. Everything is in fine working order, from the performances to the production, but it’s just not REC. In name, yes, in spirit, not really. Genre fans will find a perfectly presentable film here but franchise fans might be turned off, even if the film turns back to Angela Vidal for that connective tissue.

REC 4: Apocalypse Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

With a more streamlined, traditional shoot comes a more streamlined, traditional Blu-ray. Shout! Factory brings REC 4 to Blu-ray with a well rounded 1080p transfer. The image displays its foundational excellence in practically every scene. Facial close-ups are rich with high yield texture and pleasing intimacy to beards, pores, and other assorted character qualities. Some of the richest textures are near frame components in corridors, engine rooms, the ship's bridge, the medical bay, the galley, and several other of the ship's more prominent locales. The full setting is rather cramped in most instances so it's not much of a challenge for every background and surface to be relatively close to the viewer, but the clarity on display is well pleasing. It's claustrophobic, like the first two films, with little recourse for escape or hiding from the realities of the growing and increasingly bloody danger. It works and the set design looks fine and translates well to Blu-ray. Colors satisfy as well, particularly red blood against the somewhat flat and bleak ship interiors that are not particularly vibrant or bold. The movie doesn't have a steady stream of full intensity color on display but even the predominant grays and blues and other ship interior colors play with healthy depth. Skin tones are fine and black levels are solidly deep and true. The picture never struggles with source noise. Additional source and encode artifacts are next to nonexistent.

REC 4: Apocalypse Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

REC 4 features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack in the native Spanish language. The presentation is well capable in all areas though not a standout in any. Musical width, spacing, and fidelity are fine, doing a fine job of general reproduction for clarity and immersion. Little hints of atmosphere on the ship -- whether small support sounds on the bridge, banging pots and small flames in the galley, or larger growls and heavy-set sounds within ship's bowels -- present with commendable command of the basics to draw the listener into the various locations. Gunfire is on the weaker side of the ledger. Creature screams are piercing but don't really get in the listener's face, either. Dialogue is clear and plays from a natural front-center location.

REC 4: Apocalypse Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of REC 4 includes a making-of, trailers, and an image gallery.

• The Making of REC 4: Apocalypse (1080p, 27:58): A tour through the sets, cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, explorations of how various parts of the film were made, core story details, stunt work, creature and gore effects, and more.
• Theatrical Trailers (1080p, 8:05 total runtime): Five trailers.
• TV Spot (1080p, 0:36).
• Image Gallery (1080p, 4:55): A number of photographs from the set which auto advance. There is no accompanying music.

REC 4: Apocalypse Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

REC 4: Apocalypse is a perfectly fine, if not perfectly forgettable, film in isolation. Most genre fans would have a good enough time with it, but with the REC name comes certain expectations that the film can't reach. REC 3 proved a valuable entry in something of a tonally and structurally hybrid approach and spinoff film. This is more of a direct sequel that foregoes the essential style in favor of a more familiar structure. It's fine as a lore-builder but never finds much personality: it's watchable but forgettable. Shout! Factory's Blu-ray delivers sturdy video and audio. It also has the fewest extras of any film in the series. Worth a look.