Review of Quarantine (2008) by Halfwelshman — 04 Jul 2012

Quarantine is mostly a shot-for-shot, slightly glossier American remake of Spannish horror stunner [Rec]. It's a consistently diverting film in its own right, and keeps you interested throughout, but it's nowhere near as terrifying as the original film.

This is mostly due to the fact that the big scares come in exactly the same places as they did in [Rec]. Though it's always a technically competent film, the filmmakers don't appear adept enough at pacing and judging the viewers expectations to provide too many new scares.

Jennifer Carpenter gives a decent performance playing reporter Angela Vidal, who is trapped in an L.A apartment complex when a mysterious virus breaks out and the authorities seal off the building. Carpenter effectively communicates her terror, and we can sympathise with her and the ordeal she is going through, though she lacks the raw, panicked energy of Manuela Velasco in the original film.

Don't get me wrong, Quarantine is a perfectly reasonable and effective horror film if you're seeing it for the first time without any knowledge of the preceding Spanish found-footage chiller. However, if you're re-watching it, or if you've already seen [Rec], then there isn't a whole lot to frighten or thrill you.

At least Quarantine was made in the same spirit as the original film, and director John Erick Dowdle appears to hold the original film in some regard, but his slicker take on this landmark horror story somehow isn't as viscerally terrifying as the low-budget guerrilla-style [Rec].