Quarantine Movie Review

Another horror film that follows the same concept of The Blair Witch Project.

Quarantine is a horror/suspense film that is a remake of the 2007 Spanish horror film REC.

Quarantine was directed by John Erick Dowdle and stars Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Jay Hernandez, Johnathon Schaech, Columbus Short, and Greg Germann.

Reporter Angela Vidal, played by Carpenter, and her cameraman Scott Percival, played by Harris, are covering a report on the night shift of a group of firefighters at the Los Angeles fire station. Firemen George Fletcher, played by Schaech, and Jake, played by Hernandez, show them the daily routines at the firehouse.

Soon the firemen spring into action after receiving a call in regards to a medical emergency at a small apartment complex. When Fletcher and Jake arrive at the scene with Vidal and Percival, they are joined by two police officers who are waiting at the lobby with a group of concerned tenants. The 911 call was made after the tenants heard an older woman, Mrs. Espinoza, from her third floor apartment screaming hysterically.

Vidal and Percival follow every move of the firemen and police officers as they go upstairs to the woman’s apartment. When they enter the room, they find Mrs. Espinoza in the dark, wearing a nightgown that’s covered in blood. She is struggling to breathe and foaming at the mouth. At first she is calm, but then attacks one of the officers by biting him in the neck, causing him to bleed profusely. He is immediately taken to the lobby to treat his wound. When trying to leave the building to get some medical attention, the group finds out that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has quarantined the building. All exits are sealed and heavily guarded.

Soon it becomes evident that the other tenants are displaying the same symptoms like Mrs. Espinosa that are similar to rabies, only more fast-acting. Each person tries to figure out, what is this disease? How can they stop it? And why are the local authorities covering up the incident, and not helping them?

Assuming that they are left on their own, the few survivors try to avoid getting infected, while finding a way to escape from the building alive.

Quarantine uses the shaky camera technique that is similar to the movie Cloverfield. However, in Cloverfield about a third of the scenes were mostly in the dark, making it at times impossible to see what’s going on. But in Quarantine the lighting is a bit better, except in the very end of the film.

This is definitely a scary film, with lots of gory scenes that are not for the faint of heart. When you see Quarantine it's like Cloverfield meets Dawn of the Dead.

Quarantine is rated R and contains bloody violent and disturbing content, terror and language.

Reviewer's Rating: 6 out of 10

Written by: Bridget Campos

Originally posted on March 15, 2009
Link: http://thecelebritycafe.com/movies/full_review/12827.html