Quarantine (2008) Movie Review
Written By: LFG
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Producers: Sergio Aguero, Doug Davison, Roy Lee
Writer: John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle
Date Released: October 10, 2008
Cast:
Jennifer Carpenter as Angela Vidal
Steve Harris as Scott Percival
Jay Hernandez as Jake
Johnathon Schaech as George Fletcher
Columbus Short as Danny Wilensky
Andrew Fiscella as James McCreedy
Rade Sherbedgia as Yuri Ivanov
Greg Germann as Lawrence
Bernard White as Bernard
Dania Ramirez as Sadie
Elaine Kagan as Wanda Marimon
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
The film is about a news reporter named Angela (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman, Scott (Steve Harris), who were doing a special ride-along coverage on firefighters during their nightshift. There they were welcomed by firefighters Jake (Jay Hernandez) and George (Johnathon Schaech). It seemed it was going to be a quiet night at the fire station, until they received an emergency 911 dispatch call that took them to an apartment building where one of the residents barricaded herself in her unit. Little do they know, they were all going to be trapped inside the complex after the residents began to exhibit strange behavior and started to attack everyone inside, killing them off one by one.
Gore Factor
There were several jump scares and some gore to the film, but since most of the scenes were done under low and dull lighting at night, the gore did not come off as scary as it should have. Even the scenes where the infected attacked the others was muted because of the darkness and shaky camera. However, the prosthetics and makeup of the infected persons were effective.
The Grave Review
Quarantine (2008)’s premise is simple. A group of people are trapped inside a building filled with residents infected with a mysterious disease, and they needed to find a way out before it’s too late. Generally, this may sound like every other zombie movie out there, and perhaps in some scenes it does feel like it.
The film had a mediocre set of characters, and only a couple of them were truly memorable. Jake was the token hero of the group but the actor’s (Jay Hernandez) acting was dull. One of the few who stood out was the sick little girl, Briana (Joey King), who attacked her mom out of the blue while she was trying to protect her from others who wanted to check on her since everyone was already suspecting that she was infected. And this is only because it’s always unsettling to see a child turn into a monster.
The last fifteen minutes of the film focused on Angela and Scott who were both desperate to find a way out considering they were the only survivors left. This is where the actress (Jennifer Carpenter) shines the most as in the other scenes, it didn’t feel like she was the main protagonist at all. Perhaps this is also because of the way the film is presented. Also, this is the most intense part of the film since she had to navigate her way around a completely dark room quietly so she could avoid an infected man who turned out to be feeding on Scott.
Overall, Quarantine (2008) is a decent film even if there isn’t anything unique about it, aside from the CDC’s questionable way of handling the crisis, which did not feel realistic and is quite frustrating to watch. There aren’t any special effects as well since the film is done in a found-footage format. While this film style may not be everyone’s taste, in this movie, the style still works. In a way, it is still somehow refreshing to watch a film from a character’s perspective, which in this case was the cameraman Scott. However, the downside of this would be that it is quite challenging to focus on the film when the camera work is all over the place.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Quarantine (2008) two graves out of five graves.
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You may also like our review of the film, Cabin Fever.
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