ABSTRACT
The dark, claustrophobic interior spaces of the films in Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza's [REC] tetralogy uphold the assertion in which terror infiltrates quotidian spaces, namely an apartment building in an urban Barcelona neighborhood. While it is widely accepted that the figure of the monster in film embodies society's fears, the viral infection in the [REC] films that transforms its victims into unstoppable flesh-craving zombies epitomizes the fear of a foreign other that violently invades one's home and body with dehumanizing consequences. The fear of transforming into a non-human by an external evil that has infiltrated Spain's cityscape conveys what Zizek called the "horror of the Real". It argues that the films of the [REC] series present a figuration of the trauma provoked by the terrorist attacks on March 11, 2004 at the Atocha train station in Madrid. The chapter analyzes the films of the [REC] series in connection with the political economy of Spain.
