DVD Review: Quarantine

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22 February 2009 10 Comments

Quarantine (2008)

Studio: Sony Studios

DVD Release Date: February 17, 2008

Directed By: John Erick Dowdle

Cast: Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Jay Hernandez, Rade Serbedzija & Joey King

Brutal As Hell Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

Review By: Annie Riordan

It’s just a run-of-the-mill news night for Los Angeles fluff reporter Angela Vidal. Tonight’s assignment has Angie and her faithful camera man Scott hanging around the fire department, shadowing the firefighters, goofing around with the pole and hoping for a call so that L.A.’s civilian population can catch a glimpse of their helmeted heroes in action. Finally, after an uneventful couple of hours hanging around the station, a call comes in and both Angela and Scott eagerly hope aboard the fire truck, hoping for some action.

At first, it seems like a routine call to an old, dilapidated apartment house. An elderly female resident is apparently ill and needs assistance. But when said elderly woman suddenly freaks out and attacks a police officer, biting him in a foamy-mouthed frenzy and causing several serious injuries, it soon becomes apparent that something is not right. When Angela and the firefighters attempt to exit the building, they find themselves trapped within. Outside, the police, SWAT and the Center for Disease Control have quarantined the entire building and are releasing false reports to the media that all within have been evacuated. As the contagion quickly spreads, turning the infected into violently rabid zombies, Angela, Scott and the dwindling circle of survivors realize that no one is coming to save them, and that they have, in fact, been left to die.

I haven’t seen [REC], the original Spanish horror flick that inspired this remake. I do plan on seeing it ASAP, but I’m actually rather glad about the fact that I was able to watch this remake without any pre-conceived notions or prejudices. As it stands, I found Quarantine very enjoyable and quite frightening, and I’m not a person who scares easily. The plot is a mix of 28 Days Later and Dawn Of The Dead, with a Blair Witch/Cloverfield you-are-there filming technique which – honestly – became rather nauseating after a while.

However, despite the constant bouncing, spinning and jiggling (sounds like I’m describing an Annie Sprinkle performance, for gods sake), Quarantine is quite tense and realistic, aided in no small part by Jennifer Carpenter’s performance (I admit it – I love her!) and a supporting cast of characters who all look like real people as opposed to airbrushed actors.

Quarantine just seems like it could really happen, anywhere and at anytime. It’s very satisfactorily bloody, scary and oh-my-god horrifying. I now cannot wait to see [REC], but I’m not sorry I saw this remake first.

10 Comments »

Ben said:

It’s cool that you enjoyed it, but I can’t feel anything but resentment for this film. There is simply no reason for it to exist. REC hasn’t even been out a year, and now a hell of a lot of people won’t ever bother to see it. And for what? Because some people are too lazy to read subtitles? Such bollocks.

REC is a great horror film. I haven’t seen this and don’t intend to – I just can’t see how it can stand up on its own merits.

# 23 February 2009 at 2:20 pm

Marc (author) said:

Here’s the main problem with Quarantine… it exists.

Now that it does exist what do we do? It wasn’t a bad film. It was genuinely frightening at times, and I must admit, far better than most of the Hollywood horror today. Part of me truly enjoyed the film.

The problem was that is was practically a shot for shot remake of [REC], you know the ORIGINAL film. So I guess that means Quarantine is not really that original at all, which might lead me to say Quarantine is actually a pretty shitty film. Shit, I’m no filmmaker, but I could probably pull off a paint by color film with a half measure of success.

But let’s get down to politics and let’s call a spade a spade about why Quarantine really exists, and that’s to pad the pockets of Sony exec’s. [REC] has all but been banned in the US. Sure, it’s not been officially banned, but it’s been corporately cock blocked. Why? So that Quarantine can exist and make an American studio some cash. It’s a philosophical and ethical nightmare that will make one’s head spin like little possessed Regan. You can’t stop it. You can’t rage against the machine. It is what it is. Fuckin’ sad.

# 23 February 2009 at 7:48 pm

Marc (author) said:

Oh – and Annie saw the Quarantine under the conditions that anyone should… without having seen the original. The further you are removed from [REC] the more you’ll enjoy yourself. Quarantine was well done. But again… it was just paint by numbers.

# 23 February 2009 at 7:50 pm

Annie said:

Okay okay, I’ll rent REC as soon as I can. Then I can be one of the cool kids who hated this film.
Yeesh!

# 27 February 2009 at 7:48 am

Marc (author) said:

Yeah Annie… like join the cool kids club already! LOL.

# 28 February 2009 at 8:37 am

Ben said:

I will throw my hand up and state that I am not being a cool kid in my attitude to this movie – I am being a snob. I admit it freely. But in this instance I am not ashamed.

# 28 February 2009 at 2:19 pm

Annie said:

Neither am I. I liked it. Sue me.

# 28 February 2009 at 6:23 pm

Brian said:

I like Quarantine as well, but I perfer REC.

I however think that anything that gets people to watch the originals is a good thing.

From my own experiences working at blockbuster:

I hated the Ring, but I was so glad that I was able to find RINGU on DVD when The Ring came. I also noticed people renting it by mistake at Blockbuster and returning saying it was better than the original. (I didn’t have the heart to tell them that RINGU was the original)

I can only hope that REC is right there in videostores for people to rent now.

# 1 March 2009 at 12:55 pm