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A Look Through the Lens of ‘REC 2’ With Paco Plaza

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It’s been nearly a year since we caught up with REC 2 (review) co-directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza at the Toronto International Film Festival (rewind here). With the film arriving in limited theaters July 9 from Magnet Releasing, we caught up for a follow-up with Plaza who chatted briefly about the birth of the franchise and where it might go. The sequel picks up 15 minutes from where the first left off, taking audiences back into the quarantined apartment building where a terrifying virus has run rampant, turning the occupants into mindlessly violent, raging beasts.

It’s crazy to think that we’re already looking forward to two more REC sequels. Plaza remembers when they decided to push the initial film into a franchise.

It was after the release and success of the first one that we began to think that it was worth developing the cosmology we had created. When we thought about it, we came back to the original to rescue some ideas already planted there, like the demonic possession, that left a lot to explore.” But the duo of Paco and Jaume Balaguero didn’t think about a sequel until after they arrived at the theater. “To be honest, when we went together to a theatre in Barcelona, it was crowded, sold out, people yelling, laughing and an ovation during the credit block,” said Plaza. “Jaume and I looked to each other and knew we couldn’t just leave it there.

Even though a sequel wasn’t in the original plan, Plaza explains that the idea of demonic possession was in fact teased in the first REC.

That is the background we had created; at the end of the first REC we somehow gave a lot of clues, in the tape, in the newspapers on the wall…everything was already there. We loved the idea of mixing living dead with and exorcist.

An interest turn in REC 2 is the all new first-person perspective from various “actors”. Plaza recounts the interesting experience.

It was fun because the actors operate themselves, and sometimes they were so concerned about the shot that almost forgot to act. It took a little longer but it was worth having the actors doing it, I think it gives an special flavor.

Looking forward to both REC 3 and 4, Plaza couldn’t reveal anything just yet, but explained that they’re “ working really hard in making the funniest and scariest of the three,” adding that even though directing duties are split up, they’ll still work on each other’s films. “Jaume will be involved as a producer and I will do the same in his.

But those hoping for the REC films to in the same direction as Saw (with several more sequel), don’t keep your hopes up. “The fourth will be the last one, at least on our side…” Plaza teases adding more more juicy tease: Angela could return…again! “I think she might. You never know with her.

REC 2 in now available On Demand, PS3, Amazon and Xbox 360, with a limited theatrical run beginning on July 9.

Paco Plaza

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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‘Dancing Village: The Curse Begins’ – Exclusive Clip and Images Begin a Gruesome Indonesian Nightmare

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Indonesian filmmaker Kimo Stamboel (MacabreHeadshot, The Queen of Black Magic) is back in the director’s chair for MD Pictures’ Badarawuhi Di Desa Penari (aka Dancing Village: The Curse Begins), a prequel to the Indonesian box office hit KKN Curse Of The Dancing Village. Lionsgate brings the film to U.S. theaters on April 26.

While you wait, whet your appetite for gruesome horror with a gnarly exclusive clip from Dancing Village: The Curse Begins below, along with a gallery of bloody exclusive images.

In the horror prequel, “A shaman instructs Mila to return a mystical bracelet, the Kawaturih, to the ‘Dancing Village,’ a remote site on the easternmost tip of Java Island. Joined by her cousin, Yuda, and his friends Jito and Arya, Mila arrives on the island only to discover that the village elder has passed away, and that the new guardian, Mbah Buyut, isn’t present.

“Various strange and eerie events occur while awaiting Mbah Buyut’s return, including Mila being visited by Badarawuhi, a mysterious, mythical being who rules the village. When she decides to return the Kawaturih without the help of Mgah Buyut, Mila threatens the village’s safety, and she must join a ritual to select the new ‘Dawuh,’ a cursed soul forced to dance for the rest of her life.”

Kimo Stamboel directs from a screenplay by Lele Laila.

Aulia Sarah, Maudy Effrosina, Jourdy Pranata, Moh. Iqbal Sulaiman, Ardit Erwandha, Claresta Taufan, Diding Boneng, Aming Sugandhi, Dinda Kanyadewi, Pipien Putri, Maryam Supraba, Bimasena, Putri Permata, Baiq Vania Estiningtyas Sagita, and Baiq Nathania Elvaretta star.

KKN Curse Of The Dancing Village was the highest grossing film in Indonesian box office history when initially released in 2022. Its prequel is the first film made for IMAX ever produced in Southeast Asia and in 2024, it will be one of only five films made for IMAX productions worldwide. Manoj Punjabi produces the upcoming Indonesian horror prequel.

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