Quarantine (2008)

"Quite possibly the best horror film this year.  Brad Miska, Bloody-Disgusting.com
"...delivers the heebie-jeebies with solid acting and perfectly calibrated shocks.  Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
"...a stripped-down bloody thrill ride that -- while certainly not catering to everyone's tastes -- should satisfy gore-hounds...  Jeremy Wheeler, TV Guide
"...scary as hell.  Jim Ridley, L.A. Weekly
"...uses consistent logic and confinement to find new ways of being scary.  Liam Lacey, The Globe and Mail

Editor's Note A faithful adaptation of the 2007 Spanish film REC, QUARANTINE chronicles the outbreak of a rabies-like disease in a Los Angeles apartment building and the struggle of the unaffected residents to stay alive after the authorities trap them inside in an effort to contain it. Equal parts BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and 28 DAYS LATER, the film is presented through the eye of a video camera, putting the audience in the middle of the action and creating a heightened level of intensity and realism. Television reporter Angela (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman, Scott (Steve Harris), are covering the goings-on at a firehouse for a program about night shift workers. As she clowns around with two flirty firemen (Jonathan Schaech and Jay Hernandez), an alarm sounds, and a truck is dispatched--with Angela and Scott on board---to an apartment building where an old woman has seemingly lost her mind. The woman bites one of the firemen and is soon killed, but when more tenants turn up with the same disorder, it's clear that a chain reaction is occurring. Unfortunately for Angela and the rest of the uninfected residents, the authorities have quarantined the building---but she and Scott continue to document the tragic and terrifying events inside the building as those inside are one by one transformed into bloodthirsty monsters. Director John Eric Dowdle, whose film THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES also used a pseudo-documentary approach in detailing the crimes of a serial killer, creates a sustained level of chaos and fear that will have all but the most seasoned horror fan cowering in the corner. Though the shaky camerawork may be difficult to take for those prone to motion sickness, it--along with a complete absence of music--gives the film a startling realism and immediacy to accompany its stomach-churning descent into full-on hopelessness and dread.

	Greg Germann
	Johnathon Schaech
	Jay Hernandez
	Dania Ramirez
	Rade Serbedzija
	Steve Harris
	Jennifer Carpenter
	Columbus Short
	Glenn S. Gainor - Executive Producer
	Julio Fernandez - Executive Producer
	Drew Dowdle - Executive Producer
	Carlos Fernandez - Executive Producer
	Ken Seng - Director of Photography
	Sergio Aguero - Producer
	Luis A. Berdejo - Source Writer
	John Erick Dowdle - Screenwriter
	Drew Dowdle - Screenwriter
	Jaume Balaguero - Source Writer
	Paco Plaza - Source Writer
	Roy Lee - Producer
	Doug Davison - Producer
	John Erick Dowdle - Director

Entertainment Weekly
"[The filmmakers] wisely stick close to the told-from-the-cameraman's-point-of-view template of the terrific original, though they add a few fine flourishes." -- Grade: B 10/24/2008 p.52

Los Angeles Times
"The performances are generally pretty good, particularly those of Jay Hernandez as a levelheaded firefighter and Columbus Short as a less-balanced cop 10/17/2008

New York Times
"QUARANTINE delivers the heebie-jeebies with solid acting and perfectly calibrated shocks." 10/10/2008

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "QUARANTINE successfully replicates the claustrophobic tension of [REC] and cranks up the sudden eruptions of frenzied violence, making it as much of a white-knuckle terror ride as it was the first time around." 12/01/2008 p.54

Variety
"Ratcheting up the suspense, helmer Dowdle unfolds the action more or less in real time....QUARANTINE relies heavily on shadowy atmospherics..." 10/10/2008

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] clammy, fingernail-scraping experience, strong on sound design which, with its constant background of sirens and choppers, builds a palpable post-9/11 panic." 12/01/2008 p.71

Reel.com 8 of 10
With innovation such a scarce commodity, Hollywood should really stop remaking foreign films. Aside from their almost universal track record for underachieving, there is something so basic about experiencing a movie in its native tongue that no translation (or poorly scripted dubbing) can match. This past August [2008], the sensational Spanish thriller [REC]--as in the "record" button on a video camera--caused an uproar in New Zealand when one beleaguered audience member soiled themselves during a screening. Naturally, Tinseltown already had its version, Quarantine, ready to jump on such publicity. As found footage/first-person POV style shockers go, it's pretty good. You can leave your adult diapers at home, however...If you never saw [REC], never read a single review of the mesmerizing shocker, or have no idea of the brilliant work done by directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza, then Quarantine will appear absolutely fresh and highly imaginative...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. He does add a couple of clever gross outs--including one involving a mad dog, a man, and a closed elevator--but he counters that with an overabundance of unimportant characterization...Quarantine is not perfect, but it takes its unusual premise (and by now, overused approach) and manages to find a way to make it all work well. Fans of what Balaguero and Plaza accomplished should probably steer clear. But if you're in the mood for a solid, suspense-filled 90 minutes, this movie will definitely give you the creeps. - Bill Gibron

ReelViews 6 of 10
It has become tiresome to travel to a multiplex seemingly every other Friday to see the latest remake of a foreign horror film. For the most part, the problem isn't that these productions are remakes but that they're bad remakes. In some cases, that's because the source material isn't good and in some cases it's because something is broken in the translation. The reason the term "remake" has developed a negative connotation isn't because the re-imagination of a story in another era or for a different culture is inherently flawed but because so many of them are produced without any concern for intelligence or artistry. Quarantine is an English-language remake of the 2007 Spanish horror film [Rec]. While the films are in many ways similar (with certain shots and passages of dialogue being identical), Quarantine fails to correct some of the problems evident in its predecessor while also incorporating a few defects of its own...The first-person style is an inherent roadblock to Quarantine achieving any degree of mainstream acceptance. Nausea-inducing movies like this rarely work well with audiences, even when there's a huge marketing campaign at work (Cloverfield, for example). Quarantine is a small movie with a mostly unknown cast, and it looks like it was made for next to nothing...Based on multiple viewings of each, The Blair Witch Project, Diary of the Dead, and Cloverfield all play better on DVD than in theaters. There's something about the approach that is more effective on a smaller screen. Maybe the same will be true of Quarantine. It's easily the weakest entry into this ever-expanding category and is inferior to its subtitled source material. Quarantine implies "stay away" and that's not bad advice. - James Berardinelli