Record everything! As much as REC was scary this is a grander, faster, and fascinating experience. The directors Jaume Balagurero and Paco Plaza, whose small, experimental film became a hit, wanted to satisfy fans with this follow-up and are now back with a larger canvas once again a myopic first person action thriller. It pokes and screams down the spaces, and up within the same old claustrophobic walls and stairwells that you thought you had left for good in the first movie. The technical inventiveness with hand held cameras escalates to peak deeper into the darkness. The movie REC ended with unanswered questions, and some might argue that this movie answers too many; but not before one hell of a crazy route through the catacombs of hell, and more questions are raised.

REC 2 begins right where the first movie left off only minutes after Angela (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman disappeared. The same quarantined building stands to be entered, understood and cured of its disease. Several tactical policemen are going to enter the building to find out what happened and if there are any survivors. They are escorting an expert from the Ministry of Health named Dr. Owen (Jonathan Mellor) who has been tasked with finding a blood sample. But they cannot just leave, once the go in the building the doctor has the voice recognition sign for passage out, so they are there to complete their mission or until the doctor decides otherwise. It’s do or die for not just any blood sample but a vile from the first person infected, which means tracing the steps of the doomed others before them including the once-human creepy thing upstairs in the penthouse.

Three troublesome teenagers with a camera looking for any kind of excitement, good footage, and just plain kicks, also find a way into the building through the sewer, following a fireman trying to help out a guy whose wife and child are still trapped inside. Now there is no escaping, they are just rats in the walls with cameras surrounded by incredible wickedness.

I understand the directors when they call this the Aliens to their original Alien when I’ve seen the remarkable speed and violence of the demons. The attacks are incredibly sudden, furiously blind, and difficult to defend against, including from horrible infected children. You have to wonder how the directors achieved it.

The acting by all those involved is intense as they spend most of their time hysterical (Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca, Leticia Dolera, Juli Fabregas, Pep Molina, and Oscar Zafra).The haunting sounds that fill the halls and walls is spooky and very effective- substituting for a score - you’ll wonder if you aren’t under the subway or guessing at the endless menagerie of passages and hidden spaces in the old Barcelona tenement walls. The police have helmet cams allowing us to see what each character is doing opening up many camera angles and character perspectives. It is an editing feat by David Gallart (REC) to achieve the focus for each incident and scene; for the crazy improvisation could easily dizzy, bore and frustrate audiences.

I miss the obscurity in the last movie but it’s moving on to a different level raising suspense again. Actually, there needs to be a REC 3. Whatever we need to do to survive we’ll need night vision to do it. See it before Quarantine 2.