Quarantine (2008)
Directed by John Erick Dowdle
Starring Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez, Columbus Short, Greg Germann, Steve Harris, and Dania Ramirez
A small crew for a late night magazine show is working on a piece about firemen. The anchor, Angela, and her cameraman are longing for something to spice up their story when the fire house gets a call. The crew accompanies the firemen to an apartment building. The firemen, the police, and the residents of the building are concerned with the noises coming from their neighbor’s apartment. When the police approach the woman in question, she pounces on a cop and takes a bite out of him. The bitten man quickly turns into another vicious berserker, infecting more people. As the apartment building is covered by a quarantine tent and surrounded by the CDC, it becomes clear that they have no intention of letting these people out. While the residents and responders battle for their lives against the rabid infected, the camera captures everything that happens.
Incase you did not know, Quarantine is a remake of the Spanish found footage film [REC]. I have not seen [REC], so I do not know how the two compare. What I do know is that Quarantine is a fine movie that is more polished than many others in this genre. For a found footage movie, it is kind of impressive how many recognizable character actors are used. Jennifer Carpenter does a good job carrying the movie and serving as the viewer’s guide to the madness. Steve Harris makes the most of his role of the cameraman. He acts as the viewer’s eyes and ears, at times even voicing our concerns. For a movie like this, all the actors involved do a wonderful job making these characters believable. Also, it is pleasant seeing a few familiar faces show up in the found footage genre.
The makeup is fairly minimal, but effective. For these zombie-like victims, it is just some bloody faces and bulging veins. Since the whole cause of this situation is a fast acting virus, the infected look appropriately sick. For fans of fast zombies in horror movies, Quarantine makes them look good. They have bloody, gnarly scream and sprint like Olympic track stars. It is unnerving and gets in your face immediately, making for some good scares.
If you have not seen this or are interested in how the remake handled the material, Quarantine is a worth watching. I cannot speak to how it compares to [REC], but I can say that it is a good movie in its own right. It also has the pleasure of being a found footage film that is tense, well acted, and expertly shot. For this genre, that is not always easy to come by.
8 out of 10
