Quarantine Reviews

Most of you are aware that this film is the American remake of the Spanish film [REC] whether you have seen it or not.

If you have seen the original, then you no doubt will be as anxious to see this version as I was. I figured that if John Erick Dowdle could manage to pull off a film even a little bit as scary as the former, I would be turning cartwheels upon leaving the theater. Well I didn’t break into spontaneous somersaults but that is likely more due to the fact that I am now in my thirties rather than the fact that he failed. Indeed he did not.

I do prefer the original but only by a small margin. There a few subtle differences and also some really big ones. The big ones come in the form of about 15 minutes of added footage for this theatrical release. If you are familiar with [REC] these will be nice surprises surely meant to keep you on your toes…full story

Blame the current End Of Times zeitgeist, but both the “horror movie filmed by a participant with a hand-held camera” and the “disease turning ordinary people into crazed killers” thing have practically become subgenres in their own rights as of late. This past year has seen the release not only of Cloverfield, but also of Diary of the Dead (directed by George Romero of all people!) and of course [REC]. And now this…full story

I am really impressed with Jennifer Carpenter’s performance as the reporter. Man, if you’ve never seen fear portrayed on the big screen before, you’ll only need to see Carpenter in this movie and that would suffice.. because her scream, her fast breathing, and the cold expression in her face are some of the best an actress can pull when dealing with a horrifying problem at hand…full story

The entire film is shot from one camera and basically works in real time. This heightens the tension and jump-ability factor but also ruins any real sense of characterization or serious emotional investment. Quarantine actually has more in common with The Real World than Jaws. It throws a slew of unknown characters without a backstory into a traumatic situation and lets the viewer watch how they’ll behave…full story

But true to the American way of “bigger is better,” the small scale Spanish production is given a much broader cinematic canvas from which to work. Most of the previous shocks are present again, but Poughkeepsie Tapes director John Erick Dowdle (who co-wrote with brother Drew) can’t leave well enough alone…full story