Quarantine
DIR: John Erick Dowdle • WRI: John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle • PRO: Sergio Aguero, Clint Culpepper, Doug Davison Carlos Fernández, Julio Fernández, Roy Lee • DOP: Ken Seng • ED: Elliot Greenberg • DES: Jon Gary Steele • CAST:  Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Johnathon Schaech, Columbus Short

[REC] was one of the most intriguing and entertaining horror films of the noughties (thankfully avoiding the torture-porn characteristics of contemporary cinematic offerings such as the Saw and Hostel movies) and yet this was not enough for the American market who seemingly have an aversion for all things subtitled. What was Hollywood to do only to Americanise it for its audience. Enter Quarantine, a remake that highlights the superiority of its original while also exposing the failings of contemporary Hollywood.

The concept of the original is simple: a group of people are trapped in an apartment block due to an unidentified disease. This alone must have been deemed too mild for Hollywood scares, and therefore Quarantine was pumped with standard Hollywood qualities tagged with the original’s novelty visual style and little else. This visual style (the film is shot in its entirety via a portable television camera) has guaranteed audiences in America and will guarantee audiences on this side of the Atlantic, and is the movie’s saving grace. There are moments when the camera struggles to comprehend the commotion surrounding it (the screen becoming a series of surreal blurs, with characters becoming mere shapes and sounds) yet the overall effect is one that lends the movie a magnetism and an entertainment that is somewhat undeserving of its underlying dim-witted nature, the blame for which can be laid at just one door: Hollywood.

Watching this movie, the flaws within Hollywood’s box-office output becomes apparent; the film is seemingly post-modern without a hint of irony (the naïve actions of the ‘heroes’ to help the obviously infected inhabitants to wait in the lobby with their uninfected neighbours) making it unintentionally laughable and frustratingly predictable, the film is incredibly xenophobic (the apartment is filled with clichéd representations of untrustworthy immigrants), the narrative has been ‘dumbed-down’ (the Cameraman helps to explain moments in the film), the characters don’t engage (due to their one-dimensionality and lack of screen time/back story) and the gore-factor is unnecessarily high (a drill is used to examine the diseased rather than the needle in the original). Simply put, Quarantine is a reflection of the poor state of contemporary Hollywood, whatever the genre.

However, the film will entertain those in search of a cheap thrill and remains intriguing for its novelty visuals and sound design at least. But the obvious conclusion is to urge those interested in Quarantine to seek out the vastly superior [REC] instead, where you get the interesting visuals and genuine scares in a thought-provoking narrative.

Michael Peers
(Read biog here)

Rated 18 (see IFCO website for details)
Quarantine is released on 21st November 2008
Quarantine – Official website