4 1/2 Stars:
A Must See for Horror Fans!!!!
Holy Shit!!! What a well made movie. When I first saw the trailer for “Quarantine” my initial reaction was that this was going to be another crappy movie like “The Grudge.” After the second or third viewing of the trailer I started to get interested. As I usually do when I’m interested in a movie, I went to check out the guys over at “Ain’t it Cool News” (www.aintitcool.com) to see what they thought of “Quarantine.” When I did a search on “Quarantine” a bunch of reviews for “[REC]” came up. “Quarantine” is a remake of a Spanish movie named “[Rec]” that came out in December of 2007. My understanding is that the company that owns the distributing rights to “[Rec]” also owns the rights to “Quarantine,” so they were avoiding a United States release of “[Rec]” until “Quarantine” was released on DVD.
I haven’t seen “Quarantine” and after seeing “[Rec]” I now know there is no point in seeing “Quarantine,” because there was no point in making “Quarantine.” “[Rec]” was the perfect foreign film to give a US theatrical release. This movie is so well made, scary and fun that it doesn’t matter what language the characters are speaking. This movie could have been the ground breaking foreign film that would convince the average movie go’er to check out other foreign movies. That way we wouldn’t have to remake every foreign horror movie. There are so many good foreign movies out there, especially genre foreign films that people don’t see because they don’t want to read the screen. “Audition” and “Oldboy” are two that jump to mind and I think that “[Rec]” could have been the movie to turn viewers on to them.
“[Rec]” starts out with a news crew (reporter and camera man) in a fire station preparing to tape their public interest story. They were going to follow the firemen around on any calls they may get over night. The movie spends less than 10 minutes (roughly) in the fire department before they get a call. The call sends them to an apartment building where screams from an old lady trapped in her apartment were heard. Once they get to the apartment building all hell breaks loose. They quickly find out that they’ve been quarantined in the building and they don’t know why. I’m not going to divulge any more information, but from this moment on you’re in for a fun ride.
The movie is filmed in cinema verite style much like “The Blair Witch Project.” This movie isn’t all that original, but it is a very fresh take. If you enjoy horror movies, this is definitely one of the better ones I’ve seen in awhile. The difference between this movie and say “The Blair Witch Project” or even “Cloverfield” is that you don’t find yourself yelling at the screen for them to drop the camera and run. It makes sense that they keep the camera with them...for the most part. Additionally, everything that could go wrong with the camera while running and bumping into things does and it had a very accurate feel to it.
For those of you that go and see “Quarantine” and like it, check out “[Rec]” and give credit where credit is due. When “The Blair Witch Project” came out, people actually believed that what they were watching was real. While “[Rec]’s” story is a little more farfetched, the realism in the camera work is far superior to that of “The Blair Witch” or any other films shot in the cinema verite style. I highly recommend horror fans see this film if you’re able to get a copy of it. You will not be disappointed, I assure you.
BYLINE:
Bob Zerull is a frequent movie and concert goer who talks about his ventures to arenas and theaters more than any person should be allowed to do. Now, he puts them down on paper.
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