It's demonic possession that spreads organically, like a contagion. What we wind up with is sort of a cross between 28 Days Later and The Exorcist, with our undead turning out to be not quite zombies after all, but closer in species to Sam Raimi's Deadites, or perhaps a whole bunch of very angry Regan MacNeils, if you prefer.
This might put off some who appreciated the more "grounded in reality" approach of the original (whatever that may mean in a movie about the living dead), but I found this to be the most rewarding development of all. Whereas the first time out, we got a straightforward modern, infection-style zombie film, with only some hints at the end of the supernatural, this time things go full-tilt into the realm of the occult. Rather, I found it to be a change of pace and just one of the things that make this movie anything but the tired aping of the original that it easily could've been.Īnother area in which there is bold and fascinating development going on is the direction taken by Balaguero, Plaza and their scripting collaborator Manu Diex in the actual narrative. This time, the whole thing feels a bit more dramatized, more traditional in presentation, and I don't mean that necessarily as a negative. One of the criticisms of the original (thought not by me) was that it was almost too realistic, with a constant stream of panicked yelling and screaming, and stretches of action so muddled by movement and noise as to be overly disorienting. This time, however-and this felt like an intentional decision-the action is less chaotic, and more coherent. It's all edited together to create a real feeling of development from the original Balaguero and Plaza are consciously exploring and expanding the visual "gimmick" they introduced the first time out. It's the same "found footage" approach taken by cinematographer Pablo Rosso in the original, except this time the film makers kind of riff on that style, giving us several different points of view from a few different camera sources, such as the cams carried by the SWAT members, the camera inevitably carried by one of the teens, etc. The story is told, once again, in cinema verite style, with all the action depicted via "real life" video recordings. Matters are further complicated by a group of overly curious teens who sneak into the building as well. We're right back on the scene of the quarantined apartment building, as a SWAT team and a special government agent infiltrate the structure to figure out just what the hell is going on inside. 2 picks up the action right where we left off at the end of the first one-kind of like a Rocky movie, except with dead people instead of boxers.
And I'm excited to say that it was an intense flick that's almost as much fun as the original, and in some ways, even more interesting. It was the kind of a movie that grabs the neckhairs of even a hardened fright film watcher like myself and says: "Be afraid." So it was with great relish that I latched on to the opportunity to experience 2, Balaguero and Plaza's continuation of their tale of undead outbreak. In my opinion, the original was the most downright terrifying horror film of the previous decade. It turned out I wasn't the only one, as lots of other writers in the horror blogosphere with which I was just becoming acquainted were also raving about it. I wanted to get the word out about this fantastic Spanish zombie film that, unfortunately, was not known to many American fans. In the early days of The Vault of Horror, Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza's was the one of the very first new horror films I passionately championed.