[REC]

Zombies are the only horror film creatures that truly freak me out. I think it's the whole being-eaten-alive scenario. [REC] is creepily effective and for the second time in a month a Spanish horror film makes genuinely unsettling use of a nightvision sequence. Not being able to properly see the terrors that are suggested by the soundtrack always works better than the tortureporn approach of showing every last detail. Top marks too for being thoroughly ruthless with the characters, even poor Pablo, the man behind the camera whose face is never seen. A nice touch too with the hint of an escape route - involving a tense find-the-right-key sequence - that is immediately made an impossibility as the survivors find themselves cut off at the top of the building with no hope of reaching the basement. And the most disturbing scene? The hysterical mother cuffed to the banisters, the key that could release her with the now-infected policeman, and the zombies breaking through the barrier. You can guess the rest.