[REC]2: Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. Starring Manuela Velasco, Jonathan Mellor, Óscar Sánchez Zafra, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca 18 Cert, gen release, 85 min

The sequel to the Spanish horror film [REC] is satisfyingly vile, writes DONALD CLARKE

AFTER THE murky disappointment that was The Descent 2, it's cheering to report that Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, directors of REC, have done a very decent job of following up that Spanish outbreak horror from 2007.

As is often the way with successful sequels, they’ve managed to make the film both satisfactorily different and reassuringly similar to its predecessor. We are back in the house where the horrendous possession took place, but, this time, rather than viewing the action through one video camera, we are treated to feeds from a series of devices fixed to the helmets of armed police officers. Offering a series of angles, the new film now seems a tad less gimmicky than part one, but still manages to find sufficient original twists and turns.

If you wanted to reduce the developing franchise to a sentence you could do worse than "The Exorcist meets 28 Days Later".

The rampaging-infection school of horror – zombies and other human shells – usually inclines towards science rather than superstition. It is, thus, diverting to find the holy water and crucifixes being wielded against this new division of beasts.

The film is, perhaps, a little bit too busy. As the action flits from floor to floor, it rapidly becomes hard to tell which satanic cannibal is feasting on which unfortunate law enforcement officer.

Whereas Danny Boyle managed to significantly expand his story for 28 Weeks Later, REC 2remains a claustrophobically contained haunted-house picture (albeit one set in a very noisy house indeed).

Still, though it remains a raw genre piece, REC 2offers enough bracingly vile moments to suggest there is further mileage in the formula.

A trilogy might, however, be quite sufficient.