Nato And Remy’s Last Stand: Franchise Killing Horror Sequels

Remy – [REC] 3: Genesis

I know my boy Matty didn’t hate this movie as much as I did, but [REC], much like The Descent, is one of the best horror films I have ever seen. Even [REC] 2 did a good job of sticking with the gore and scares of the first movie, but switched it up enough, and threw enough new elements at us that it kept the franchise fresh and enjoyable. Then [REC] 3: Genesis happened, and all the tension and creepiness of the first two movies has all but vanished, replaced with a laughably bad sense of humor. Yes, you read that correctly – a movie about mass demonic possession turns into a comedy.

I will admit this, the lead in the film, Leticia Dolera, is captivating. She is amongst the most beautiful woman you have ever seen, mixed with a foxy pixie. She is inherently watchable, and was the one element that kept me glued to my seat until the end of the film, but I still kept saying “are you f*cking kidding me?” out loud to the screen, and that is how I knew I hated this movie deeply. How can you take the two previous movies, all the tension and story they built up, and then toss that all aside so a guy can go walking through the “demons” in a full suit of medieval armor so they don’t attack him? If that scenario sounds funny to you, you just might love this film, but if that very scene sounds as stupid as it actually IS, then avoid this movie.

The first two movies had two directors, Paco Plaza and Juam Balaguero, who also wrote the films. As I touched on in my massive [REC] dissection for Unreality, I feel like these two, at this point in the series, had distinctly different visions. I think Juam didn’t like where Paco had intended to take the series (let’s make it funny!) so they decided to split up direction into two movies, [Rec] 3: Genesis (prequel), which Plaza directed, and [Rec] 4, which will be the official sequel to [REC] 2, and will directed by Juam. That being said, I still have faith that part four might not be the worst movie ever made, and may take this story back to its scary, gory roots, but only time will tell.

Oh, and don’t EVEN get me started on the American remake Quarantine and that film’s sequel, because that second Quarantine film is one of the worst horror movies I have ever seen, straight up.

Listen, horror directors: if your movies are awesome, got good reviews, and are respected, PLEASE, just leave the franchise alone. Instead, you get hungry for money, and bang out a sequel that takes a steaming dump all over your first film, and the genre itself. I know in a great deal of these cases the directors didn’t always have anything to do with the sequel, but still. Don’t sell your rights. Don’t just keep retreating and giving us crap. Wrong Turn and Wrong Turn 2: Dead End were great films, but by Wrong Turn 4 and Wrong Turn 5, the franchise became the worst horror series I have ever seen.

Here is my new rule to young horror directors: Don’t be like Wrong Turn. Just don’t.