The film begins on the very same night as the first film, minutes after the ending. A SWAT team are called in to escort a doctor through the quarantined apartment block, but little do they know at first that the doctor is actually a priest, and their mission is to find an antidote to the demonic possession that currently plagues the area.
Like all good sequels this adds to the existing story and extends the lore without overstepping its bounds. Like REC, this film is set almost entirely within the very same apartment block, even revisiting the same haunted rooms and corridors where ghastly encounters took place. This does what I love in sequels: consistency. If you enjoyed REC as much as I did (as a definitive found-footage horror film) you will enjoy this.
Naturally I don't want to spoil what happens or how it evolves the existing story, but if I had to claim something negative about the sequel, is its middle act. We follow the SWAT team early on, and this is excellent, but midway through we are given three kids who aren't connected with the story until they do what all cliche horror characters do and stick their noses where they know they shouldn't.
Another grievance is the SWAT team's total lack of professionalism... I've read excuses such as "They are Spanish, they are hot-headed", and I don't buy it. Urban warfare and tactics go out of the window in REC2, and it is inexcusable. At least in the first film they were firemen and a reporter, people who are in over their heads.
It is still as gory, intense and kinetic as the first film, though perhaps has little to improve on (REC by most standards was perfect) perhaps only by entering the action immediately, whereas REC started slowly. A worthy sequel, and I recommend anyone watching REC to follow it up with this.
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