ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the industrial backdrop out of which Filmax genre production grew in order to firmly locate the [REC] series as part of the company's established practices of production, distribution and promotion. It discusses the central features of the series, with particular focus on the narrative world of the 2007 film, its key formal and stylistic strategies, as well as its self-conscious dialogue with horror genre conventions and traditions. The narrative and aesthetic strategy of blurring reality and fiction, of experimenting with televisual language and contemporary media culture in the horror genre, delivered an innovative film. The chapter considers its critical reception, including that of [REC]'s Hollywood remake Quarantine in Spain, the US and the UK by examining the ways in which transnational readings articulate Balaguero's maxim "think-local-but-act-global-approach" and position the franchise in dialogue with horror film cultures.
