Today we’re really going to get scary, because I am
going to review the American remake of the Spanish thriller [REC], “Quarantine,”
released in 2008. This pretend-documentary horror movie, with its hand-held
shaky-camera and tipsy point of view, is enjoying a rebirth almost a decade
after “The Blair Witch Project” was released. Especially a little over a year after
we saw “Diary of the Dead,” “Cloverfield” and even the low-budget “The Charmer.”
Now “Quarantine” is telling their viewer that the scariest threat could not be
being made in the Middle East but in the apartment next door.
Our main character is Angela (Jennifer Carpenter
from the Showtime series “Dexter”), a television news reporter who, along with
her calm cameraman, Scott (Steve Harris), is looking at the firefighters for a special
on night workers. Responding to a 911 call from a downtown apartment building,
they arrive to find the residents frightened because of a sick neighbor. With
Scott’s camera still recording, this strange situation escalates while the infection
quickly spreads out to everyone and the authorities seal the building. John
Erick Dowdle, the director of the movie, gets a tip of the hat because of the
movie’s least believable incident is how fast the government responds.
Even though this does look familiar, “Quarantine”
gives us quite a scare with solid acting and perfectly adjusted frights.
Smartly working through the claustrophobic setting (and the adapted script from
[REC]), Dowdle keeps the action going and the injuries disgusting.
In a press note, Carpenter admits, “I don’t see a
lot of horror films. It takes a certain kind of stomach.” She’s right though,
because it’s best not to watch this movie when you are eating or have just
eaten.
Believe it or not, this film was so successful that
it came out with a sequel in 2011, “Quarantine 2: Terminal,” which is the best
possible recreation of a remake it could have been.
William Goss stated in his review, “The original
[REC] was a brilliantly constructed found-footage horror film that took place
entirely in a Barcelona apartment building as hyper-rabid neighbors began
turning on one another. There was a sequel, [REC] 2, and a remake, Quarantine,
which stuck well to the blueprints of the original and basically left success
unmessed with. This sequel is not a remake of that sequel, though it decides to
similarly expand on the first film’s mythos. The found-footage point of view
and any familiar characters have been excised in favor of a relatively crafty
repeat of the first film’s contagious claustrophobia.”
In this film, our characters are trapped inside a
red-eye flight that is departing from LAX as the infection starts to spread to
the other pets and passengers (the nice flight attendant (Mercedes Masohn), a
possible love interest (Josh Cooke), the obnoxious guy (George Back), the old
couple (Lynn Cole and Tom Thon), the bratty kid (Mattie Liptak), the even more
obnoxious guy (Phillip Devona), the useful army medic going home (Noree
Victoria), and so on) before an emergency landing forces the story to now go
into a fast quarantined cargo handler.
Goss comments that, “The production has the look and
feel of a ‘90s NBC miniseries (the virus-on-a-plane antics of Pandora’s Clock
specifically come to mind) crossbred with the bloodier fare that populates
Syfy’s schedule every Saturday night, although the ensemble work here is a bit
better than that comparison might suggest.” The screenplay done by director
John Pogue is inventive enough given the detained action (like one of the
passengers is a golfer so that is reason enough to make him use a golf club as
a weapon), and even though his introduction of infrared goggles is a clear
effort to copy [REC]/”Quarantine’s” night-vision climax, few other moments feel
as grateful to this film’s predecessor(s). Goss even says, “In fact, he even
pulls off one nasty bit of business involving a needle and an eye that is perfectly
squirm-inducing in a way that neither of those films even tried to be.”
At the risk of negative with faint praise, “Quarantine
2: Terminal” is about as good as something clearly meant what to be a direct-to-video
sequel can be: a bit on the cheap side, barely original, but rarely lazy, as
much of its in-name-only brotherhood.
So, if you are in the mood to be scared, then watch
these two movies. They are definitely scary, and I know you will like them
both. If not, then you’ll like the second one better, because I know I did.
Just be careful though, because something like this could happen, but I’m not
sure where.
Check in tomorrow for the next entry in “Halloween
Month.”
No comments:
Post a Comment