In 2007, "Rec" brought the aesthetics of an action-packed video game to a Barcelona apartment building, with a trapped TV news crew recording a frenzied outbreak of viral ultraviolence. Directors Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero amp up the anxiety in "Rec 2" (★★★ out of four stars, rated R for strong bloody violence, disturbing images and pervasive language, in subtitled Spanish). A SWAT team and a medical officer from the Ministry of Health re-enter the quarantined charnel house to retrieve a sample of blood that might yield a cure for the plague. As the threat veers from a biological nightmare to a biblical curse, the script pays sly homage to "The Exorcist." The new film manages to retain the claustrophobic tension of the original while deftly juggling multiple viewpoints. The directors shuffle a half-dozen layers of interrelating action as the vantage point switches between several helmet-mounted cop-cams, a video recorder carried by a trio of thrill-seeking teens and the doomed TV crew's camera. They also have an uncanny ability to throw a demon in your face at the right time. The film has the nerve-shredding impact of a tumble down a flight of stairs in the dark. (Midnight Fri.-Sat., Uptown Theatre, 1320 Lagoon Av., Mpls. $7-$9. 612-825-6006.)
COLIN COVERT
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