Quarantine 1 and 2

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.”