The first film I decided to watch is actually a bit different from the other two in that isn't rated R, it's rated PG-13 and while this may not seem like it would make that much of a difference(I thought this as I started watching it.) It actually make it stand apart in its own way. Cloverfield is the story about a few friends in New York who were having a party when an apparent earthquake strikes the city, the friends leave the building to survey the damage when Hud(Camera Operator) zooms in and spots something monstrous a few blocks down. Now with all the three of the films I watched each one shared a few common traits, one of which being camera shake, this film probably containing the most, as explosions were constantly occurring throughout the entirety of the film up until the last moments where there still was a bit of shaking going on. Another thing that all three of these films shared was their soundtrack..or lack thereof. This film had no real music through out it, the only sound being the constant screaming from the female of the group whenever something bad happened and the sirens that blared through the air as they made their way through New York. One other thing I happened to notice from this film and one other was the surprising durability of the camera's that they had with them, the only thing that really affected the camera's would be some dirt or muck from it falling or being knocked onto the ground.
REC was the second film I watched and apart from the two others this is a Spanish horror film so I had the subtitles on throughout the film, something that wasn't really a distraction but nonetheless is important if you have difficulty reading and watching something at the same time. REC is about a television reporter, Angela and her cameraman, Pablo who go to film a night shift at a Barcelona fire station. While they're filming, the station is called about an old woman who is trapped in her apartment, going with the fire apartment they break down the door to the apartment to discover something horrible. Once the film really starts moving you receive a sense of fear and chaos that doesn't leave you till the credits roll. The actors in the movie all played their parts extremely well, you get scared when they do and you hold your breath alongside them. Another thing they did well was make it seem like it was an actual recording by a news crew, and not some cut and dry little reel done by an inexperienced intern. The realistic lighting throughout the film also adds to the feeling of fear which is impressive considering the budget which was only $2 million dollars, compared to the $25 million Cloverfield and the $12 million Quarantine.
As I included at the end of my last paragraph Quarantine was the last movie I watched and rightfully so. I had actually seen this movie before so I was excited to revisit it. On paper, Quarantine is basically a worse, american version of REC, but after watching both I can say that while I believe REC to be better, Quarantine has it's own bits and pieces that help it stand out from the other two. One thing that I enjoyed was the sheer amount of people in this film, which coupled with the few gory moments really helped instill that sense of helplessness, because by the end the death toll was alot higher, and that was something that differentiated it from the tiny cast of REC. Something else I noticed was that the lighting for this film was a bit better, allowing us to see the scenes easier and didn't take away from the creepiness either. One part in this film however added a sense of "How does that work?" when the cameraman appears to beat a zombie to death with his camera and then goes on resuming, nothing at all wrong with his camera, as if he never had to beat a zombie to death.
All three of these films are great and each one should be seen because of what they bring to horror genre, the first person view you get in each one adds a sense of realness, as if you were actually there, and that for me, was the scariest part.
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