Quarantine Movie Review

QUARANTINE: DECENT HORROR FLICK

A remake of Spanish film [Rec], Quarantine is a fun movie if you want to be scared. Its star is Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter) and she is the heart of the film. Reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, it doesn’t use the usual tricks to make you jump.

Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and Scott Percival (Steve Harris) are a news reporter and her cameraman that are on assignment for the night with the local Los Angeles fire station. When the firemen get a call to an apartment building, they ride along. When they get there they are told by police officers that an elderly woman had been screaming in her apartment. When they enter the apartment the old woman is foaming at the mouth and breathing heavily. When they try to help her she attacks one of the two policemen. Before they know it the tenants, news crew, police officers, and firemen are locked inside the building by the CDC (Center for Disease Control). They try to figure out what is going on while trying to survive.

The story is a routine plot for a zombie filled horror film. Regular people start exhibiting out of the ordinary symptoms such as foaming at the mouth and turning a yellowish green. They are unresponsive to repeated asking if they are okay. Nobody realizes anything is wrong until the infected starts eating people’s faces. But, it is still filled with enough tension to frighten you. This is because of star Jennifer Carpenter and the director’s techniques to keep you at unease. Carpenter is budding reporter Angela. She is virtually an unknown in Hollywood but has still left her mark with a variety of different roles from television to the big screen. Her breakout was the title role in The Exorcism of Emily Rose. She is hilarious as the foul mouthed sister in Dexter. She brings likeability and nervousness to the reporter who gets in over her head. She will make audience members fear for their lives with her hysterics once she realizes they aren’t getting out of the building. Everybody else becomes bit players when she is in the shot (which is 95% of the time). Jay Hernandez (Hostel) tries to keep it together as fire fighter Jake. And Steve Harris and Greg Germann have virtually been off the radar since their shows The Practice and Ally McBeal were cancelled. Director John Erick Dowdle doesn’t use the typical tactics to scare his audience. There is no sinister music, no cats jumping out of corners. Just the use of a hand held camera a la the hit The Blair Witch Project. And the use of night vision hasn’t been this scary since Silence of the Lambs. Your feet will be up on the seat and nail biting will ensue. The interior of the apartment building adds to the creepiness. Not your standard, cookie cutter decoration. It looks like it hasn’t been decorated since the Great Depression. It has a long staircase in the center. There is wallpaper and Tiffany like lamps. It also has a small number of apartments, making for larger spaces and more dark corners to turn.

The beginning of the movie ran a little too long. They were trying to set a rapport between the firemen and the news crew with bits like the riding down of the pole and the men having inappropriate conversations about Angela. Cutting down the beginning by even 5 minutes would have made a drastic improvement.

Quarantine will give you a good scare with its feeling of claustrophobia and fear of the unknown. The last half hour will keep you on your toes. It won’t leave a lasting impression but it will show you a good time.

Report Card:

Story-B

Acting-B

Visuals-B+

Originality/Innovation-B

Enjoyability Grade–B

Overall Grade-B