Generating Fear: From Fantastic Factory (2000-2005) to [REC] (2007-2014)

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. The second section moves on to a discussion of 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. While [REC] exploited an industrially and commercially proven genre circuit trailed by Filmax since the early 2000s, it also stood out in the context of contemporary Spanish horror film as a franchise business which expanded the [REC] brand to a range of other media as the saga developed. As a film commodity which has been distributed and exhibited globally, the chapter finally 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 Balagueró’s maxim “think-local-but-act-global-approach” and position the franchise in dialogue with horror film cultures.