REC 3/GENESIS AND REC 4/APOCALYPSE.
I can't help but feel that the third one was The weakest yet. It has some stand out moments like the bride kicking ass but its just more of the same... With one glaring exception which cripples the movie. The found footage format is gone, which wouldn't normally be a bad thing if they wanted to experiment a bit combined with a good plot but everything feels half baked. Even the zombies, which by this point is established can run, just lumber around. Why? If they could run before why not now? Even with the found footage gone and btw I do like how they do that though: guy with the camera is like "people have a right to know" BOOM camera destroyed. I can buy the video team in the original saying that but not this random guy although he at least gets stopped from saying that same line literally immediately. I think if they stayed true to the tone of the original then it would have been better. I have to say I was kind of dreading watching Apocalypse in case it was a case of just watching how the mighty REC franchise has fallen but thankfully they redeemed themselves-
The fourth and final (?) REC film proves to be the best sequel of the bunch. The original and this, if I had to suggest a sequel, are the ones I would truly recommend to any fan. REC 2 was good, it even starts off Halloween II/Hatchet II style by picking up where the first one let off which I'm a fan of, but it had its faults. The SWAT stuff was good and it was a neat idea to have us watching it from their attached cameras (saves the whole "we're still filming because people have a right to know" line that gets repeated in lots of these found footage movies) but the kids that sneak in especially feel like expendable meat. What was their purpose? They get inside, mull around for a bit, then get locked in a room with an infected zombie by the SWAT team and presumably die. They are never heard from again. Also whilst Angela is back, she isn't given much to do besides whimpering all the time. What a waste of characters, a flaw the original doesn't have. REC 3 isn't exactly a really bad film but its a major step down from the heights of the first and even the second.
But this re-established REC as a serious franchise by going back to its roots. Its not found footage but its dark, gritty and has a very good plot. That alone compensates for changing filming style, I'd rather have a good REC film than one filmed as a found footage film which sucks. Angela is back in force this time and she gives her best performance yet. Remember how she got the parasite in her? Well that helps the film because they have to pin her down to get it out again as a cure, except she's not willing to let them operate on her. Proper plot development right there and you can sympathise with both sides because as far as she knows she doesn't know if she did get infected because of memory loss. The zombies
run again thank Christ and are
actually threatening again. I love how they corrected that and all their other mistakes from the previous instalment, even adding in more tension when they have a time limit to escape the ship. I knew that this was better than the last two even before the amazing twist that I genuinely did not see coming and I can't reveal without classing it as a spoiler, don't look at this if you haven't seen it
So yeah if I had to rank them out of 10-
REC - 10
REC 2 - 6
REC: GENESIS - 3
REC: APOCALYPSE- 8