Quarantine (2008)
A news reporter (kinda fluff stuff, lifestyle “Evening Magazine” stuff) is doing a hanging out piece on the Los Angeles Fire Dept. We follow her and her cameraman into a building where an emergency call has been made. Upon arrival they find an elderly woman who has become a rabid flesh eating insaniac. They try to evacuate the building but only a few get out, the rest are locked in by the Center for Disease Control (who have suddenly shown up out of nowhere) and…uh…Quarantined.
Anywhoozle, there is a cop, a fireman, the reporter, the cameraman and a few tenants in the building. We stay with them as the CDC shuts down their phones/internet/cable, they plug in a tv with an antenna and hear the reports that the building has been completely evacuated, so they know they’re fucked. The virus (which Jill called “crabies”) takes over various characters making them fearless and thirsty for blood. We only see what the cameraman sees in almost real-time.
The whole first person/found footage film stuff is really stale, I skipped Cloverdale, I really was disappointed with Diary of the Dead, and I’ll quote here what Sherman Alexie told me once “Blair Witch Project is only scary if you grew up in the city”. But Quarantine isn’t bad, its full of some good scares and even the constant running around didn’t bother me too much.
The acting however, isn’t good enough to make you forget that you’re watching a movie. There are plenty of moments where I was bummed that they stepped out of reality (you kill a insaniac with a camera, that camera is broken- thats the end of movie). Also, the film takes a turn at the end to explain where the virus comes from and I felt that while this scene is super scary it wasn’t plausible. Which is only a criticism I’d make for a “real footage” kind of movie.
It is scary fun, which is a rare treat, but doesn’t quite hold together to be a great film. Based on a Spanish film called [REC], I’ll check that one out at some point to compare, American remakes usually have these kinds of problems.
