Sadly Over-hyped

Pretty Good

Overrated and overhyped

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Yes, this movie is almost a one-to-one image conversion of the Spanish movie REC. So was this movie necessary? Strictly speaking no. But I found myself still entertained.The plot is just as simple as the original: A TV crew gets stuck with some firemen in a large apartment house that is the heart of a zombie outbreak.QUARANTINE does depart in some interesting ways from REC. There's a bit more character development at the beginning, with more time at the fire station to get to know everybody. That's a welcome addition! And the characters do feel pretty real. The female protagonist in particular is quite believable and does carry the movie quite well (the burden is on her, since we see her most of the time). I also liked that QUARANTINE strengthened the role of animals in the movie, and I also felt more "locked in" ... The Spanish version of the movie is overall definitely better at conveying a genuine sense of terror towards the end of the movie, and of course, it had the benefit of being the first, the true innovator. When I saw REC, I did not know what to expect. Since QUARANTINE is essentially a copy with some minor changes, the surprise was gone.Of course, just like with the original, you have to like found footage movies. QUARANTINE definitely has a lot of shaky camera and a lot of the things that are quite typical of found footage movies, such as the camera falling down or things just being dark or soundless. That said, like any good found footage movie QUARANTINE has a few ingenious things that happen with the "first person" perspective, which you'll appreciate if you're a fan of the "genre". Found footage is jarring and at times irritating for sure, but it also always adds a sense of physicality that I really like.So all in all, QUARANTINE is a fun and sometimes scary thrill ride. Nothing world- changing, but still worth your time... if you can stand found footage.

Reality camera-crew accompanies firemen on a routine call-out, to find themselves trapped in a quarantined apartment block full of infectious zombie thingies.Step-by-step remake of the original from Spain, which is famous for its final sequence.I think the direction, acting and editing is mostly superior. The original had way too much shouting, and the lead actress became irritating far too early. This actress does go irritatingly hysterical - pull yourself together, woman! - but at a relatively late stage. And the plot is tightly bound with properly placed pointers so you don't lose track in the chaos.But what about the ending? Everybody knows the creepiest thing ever committed to film is the end sequence in Ringu, which got the American treatment in The Ring, a film that improved hugely on the pace and drama of the original but simply couldn't match that sequence.In this case it seems the film makers thought they had to vary things through camera technique - so the last 20 mins has deeply annoying black screen intervals added to shaky-cam, and the tense last minutes are directed very badly with far too much movement and noise. Grrr.Overall an effective chiller, but if you know the original it's kinda pointless.

I myself am a huge fan of zombies and other similar creations in movies, therefore it only seemed logical that my first review was based on a movie which should have had everything I needed! The scares, the thrill, the storyline etc… and in some cases "Quarantine" did not disappoint, however in other areas it was not up to the standard that I was hoping. The acting of a movie is one of the most important components of a movie because if either of these areas fail then the movie is likely as not going to be disastrous. In the case of Quarantine I say the acting was fairly average, not because there were some bad actors/actresses and some good ones but rather that the majority of the characters were not that difficult to portray. For instance, one of the main characters was Angela Vidal a local news reporter (played by Jennifer Carpenter) who throughout the whole movie only really portrayed two or three emotions, in this case she was either the determined news reporter or petrified young woman. As said earlier I am not saying that Jennifer Carpenter or any other member of the cast performed their roles badly and in the case of Jennifer I in fact she played her character in a very believable manner. My main issue with the acting as said before is that there was a lack of variety in characters. However I would like to highlight one character/actor who I thought was great throughout, the character Columbus Short (played by Danny Wilensky) displayed an inner struggle between a cop doing his job and someone who was obviously scared out of their minds. Out of all the cast I thought Danny Wilensky deserved a mention. Although the limit of the characters can be partly blamed on the writing it could also be partly the blame of the director who is supposed to drive the movie. Despite this I think that John Erick Dowdle was a fairly decent director who was able to put his own spin on a movie which was by its definition a remake of the movie "Rec". In particular I liked how the camera man was fairly quiet throughout the movie. As the movie uses the technique of POV (Point Of View) filming it is very easy for the camera man to take some of the attention away from other aspects of a movie. In the case of "Quarantine" this could have meant that certain "jumpy points" would have been less scary because the camera man's intrusion could have spoilt the moments leading up to it. However I do have to say that I found the lack of ingenuity in all aspects of the movie to be quiet disappointing, I cannot think of one point in the movie where I saw an original idea. As stated earlier I am aware that this is a remake so I am not comparing this to "Rec" instead I found myself thinking of the movie "Cloverfield". As Cloverfield was released much earlier in 2008 (it was released in January/February while "Quarantine" was released in October/November).The structure of "Quarantine" is fairly standard for a horror movie, the first half is used to set the scene and to slowly introduce the viewer to the story while the second half is where the viewer gets the thrill of being scared. This again highlights how "Quarantine" is not a very unique movie as it follows the standard horror movie structure. Again this is seen with the plot with the majority of characters being killed off/infected within the last 20/30 minutes of the movie. However despite its lack of ingenuity "Quarantine" does have its positives when it comes to the plot! For instance the movie itself is a fairly realistic representation of what would happen if there was a very infectious disease within a given location. Also the virus itself (rabies or similar) is more realistic than other zombie-like diseases seen in movies. This helped me to relate to the story and the characters which in turn immersed me in the story which meant I jumped more often than if I did not believe in the story.I thought the lack of music was in fact a very good technique used by the Director (John Erick Dowdle) mainly because it made me believe that I was watching something that can actually happen in real life. This is a key aspect for any horror movie as a lack of belief (at least in my case) makes me much less scared of the movie as a whole. However it should be stated that "Quarantine" may have benefited from the tension which music sometimes creates. This is because I found that "Quarantine" was jumpy rather than scary. By this I mean that there were plenty of points in the movie where I jumped however I was never really on the edge of my seat as a result of me being scared witless. In the case of the realism the special effects overall I have to stay that it was decent, the most used special effect was blood and other such injuries. Generally the blood was realistic and the injuries weren't too over the top (e.g. the wounds weren't overly gory etc…).Overall my main impression of "Quarantine" is that it is purely average, it's not original and although it is an entertaining and jumpy movie it is not scary which is what you want a horror movie to be!

There are two ways of looking at 'Quarantine.' The first is that it's actually the (Hollywood) remake of Spanish classic horror film 'REC.' If you've already seen REC then you probably don't need to see the remake. It doesn't bring anything new to the story and is – almost – a shot for shot remake, albeit in English without the subtitles.However, if you can't be bothered watching the Spanish film with English subtitles (and you're also a bit of a horror/zombie fan) then you may appreciate Quarantine. It's one of those 'found footage' films. This basically means that it's shot from point-of-view at all times, as we follow a reporter (Dexter's Jennifer Carpenter) as she reports on a fire crew who have been called in to investigate a building late at night. Of course things go horribly wrong when the Government seal off the building, trapping those left inside with a horde of ravenous zombies.The zombies are the 'modern' type – no George Romero 'shufflers' here. Instead, we have the type who run at you while screaming into the camera and doing their best to bite your head off.It's worth making mention of the film's set. It was a purpose-built apartment complex, made specially for the film. Therefore the cast can run pretty much where they like and you get a good sense of their claustrophobic environment. Plus, having a decent leading actress helps elevate Quarantine over the dozens of run-of-the-mill zombie/B-movies out there.With so many undead movies out there, it's difficult to get that excited over Quarantine. However, if you're not (also) totally sick of 'found footage' movies, haven't seen REC and feel like sitting through quite an intense little offering, then you might like to give this one a go.