Horror Fan Perfectly Pranks Friends During Zoom Chat with [REC] Footage

While some companies are offering movie fans a chance to jazz up their Zoom meetings with custom backgrounds from films and shows, one movie fan took it to the next level. Twitter user Rob Savage posted a video online where he played a prank on some of his friends that had assembled for an online call. Savage set the stage by saying he’d been “hearing footsteps above his room,” prompting speculation that he might have rats in his home or perhaps even a serial killer living in his home. The UK filmmaker brought his laptop to the next floor and with movie magic used one of the best jump scares in horror to give them all a good scare.

Horror movie fans will no doubt recognize the above clip from the 2007 Spanish horror film [REC], a zombie movie that stands out as one of the major gems of both the found-footage subgenre and the zombie film. In the film a news team is following a fire crew for the evening and join them on a call to an apartment building to help an elderly woman trapped in her unit. After arriving things quickly get turned up to 11 as infected individuals begin to attack all throughout the film and the camera continues to roll and broadcast the entire outbreak.

Perhaps a coincidence that the footage was used for a scare during the coronavirus pandemic as the film itself was an outbreak movie (though the mythology would evolve to give that zombie infection a root in the demonic, it’s a whole thing).

The film became a runaway success after it premiered, sitting at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, with Time Out putting the film on their list of “The 100 Best Horror Films.” Even after years of the list being updated by the publication, [REC] still sits at the #60 spot, beating out films like 28 Days Later…, Aliens, Hellraiser, and Scream.

Following the first film’s success it became a full-blown franchise with REC 2 arriving in 2009, REC 3 in 2012, and REC 4 in 2014. The film was even remade for American audiences in 2008 as Quarantine, featuring Dexter star Jennifer Carpenter in the lead role. That film was followed by a sequel, Quarantine 2: Terminal, in 2011.