Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4099 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-03-09
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, English, Estonian, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

DVD Description
A television reporter and her cameraman are trapped inside a building quarantined by the CDC after the outbreak of a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty killers.

Synopsis
A faithful adaptation of the 2007 Spanish film REC, QUARANTINE chronicles the outbreak of a rabies-like disease in a Los Angeles apartment building and the struggle of the unaffected residents to stay alive after the authorities trap them inside in an effort to contain it. Equal parts BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and 28 DAYS LATER, the film is presented through the eye of a video camera, putting the audience in the middle of the action and creating a heightened level of intensity and realism. Television reporter Angela (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman, Scott (Steve Harris), are covering the goings-on at a firehouse for a program about night shift workers. As she clowns around with two flirty firemen (Jonathan Schaech and Jay Hernandez), an alarm sounds, and a truck is dispatched--with Angela and Scott on board---to an apartment building where an old woman has seemingly lost her mind. The woman bites one of the firemen and is soon killed, but when more tenants turn up with the same disorder, it's clear that a chain reaction is occurring. Unfortunately for Angela and the rest of the uninfected residents, the authorities have quarantined the building---but she and Scott continue to document the tragic and terrifying events inside the building as those inside are one by one transformed into bloodthirsty monsters.


Director John Eric Dowdle, whose film THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES also used a pseudo-documentary approach in detailing the crimes of a serial killer, creates a sustained level of chaos and fear that will have all but the most seasoned horror fan cowering in the corner. Though the shaky camerawork may be a bit difficult to take for those prone to motion sickness, it--along with a complete absence of music--gives the film a startling realism and immediacy to accompany its stomach-churning descent into full-on hopelessness and dread.

Customer Reviews

Highly [Rec]ommended!
`Quarantine' is the US alternative of the Spanish movie [Rec] that came out also in 2008 where a television reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpente) and her cameraman (Steve Harris) are making a show, spending the night with the fire department in LA (Jay Hernandez and Jonathan Schaech). A 911 call takes them to a building, wherepolice officers are already on the scene in response to screams coming from one of the apartments. They soon learn that a woman living in the building has been infected by something unknown. After a few of the residents are viciously attacked, they try to escape with the news crew in tow, only to find that the building has been quarantined.

I watched [Rec] last year and really enjoyed it but my immediate thoughts when I hear that the US has remade a foreign film is that it is going to be bad (just take a look any of the awful J-Horror remakes) but I watched this anyway and I actually really, really enjoyed it. First of all it is extremely suspenseful and very frightening...my heart was literally pounding from start to finish and I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole film. The acting is great and very believable, where I actually felt genuine panic and fear from the characters. I usually don't like movies which are filmed on a camcorder but this works really well. The rabid "zombies" are also very scary as they are more like crazy sick people than the, more often than not, comic undead.

My only complaint about this film is that it has some faces that you'll more than likely recognise from somewhere in the cast, like that girl from Dexter or the guy from Ally McBeal or the one from Hostel, as with [Rec] I felt it was a lot more realistic as all of the cast were unknown (to me anyway) so it was more believable that I was actually watching a real video of an outbreak of some unknown virus, whereas here, although it was a fantastic film, it still felt a little bit Hollywood.

Overall this is one of the best horrors I've seen for ages and is well worth checking out, even if you've already seen [Rec]. The picture quality is also very crisp and sharp with next-to no graininess in the darker scenes and the sound is absolutely amazing - I actually felt like there were helicopters and police cars outside my house, it was that good! Highly recommended!

Solid but utterly pointless remake
Quarantine follows a reporter and her cameraman tagging along with a fire crew to what they believe is a routine disturbance at a apartment block however upon arrival they find its anything but. attacked by a deranged woman infected with a mystery illness they find themselves sealed in by the CDC as the infections spreads what follows is a claustrophobic and tense battle for survival.

Kerching, the sound of Hollywood churning out another horror remake. Rec [2007] was a great surprise when it was released, appearing out of nowhere and proving to be a refreshingly scary ride. Within a year we have a remake in the vein of Funny Games [2007] and The Omen [2006] its more or less shot for shot.

There's a couple of new additions, extra scenes at the start in the fire station but these are simply padding adding nothing and ultimately slowing the pace of the film. Also the inclusion of the dog in the apartment building an interesting insertion but again ultimately adding nothing to the overall film.

Quarantine throws up a fair few good scares, directly ripped from Rec, the final scenes in the top floor apartment is utterly absorbing and horrifying likewise the pursuit by the creatures around the apartments is suitably tense and frantic. The camera style is borrowed straight from The Blair Witch Project [1999] and Cloverfield [2007] and like those films quarantine will split opinion if the shaky cam style does nothing for you quarantine certainly wont change your mind.

The central performances are decent enough, but the stars in Rec create a more genuine atmosphere and tension, to be perfectly honest Rec is the version to go for unless you hate subtitled films. If you haven't seen Rec add an extra star onto the score, as quarantine is an accomplished horror and genuinely chilling which cant be said about many of the current horror flicks, but for those of us who have its an all to familiar and underwhelming trip.

A Hollywood cash-in that lacks bite
Under its well worn zombie attire, Quarantine poses one core question which is fundamental to our collective survival when the un-dead apocalypse finally arrives; namely, what do you do when you're faced with a crazed child who is baying for your blood? According to this new take on the zombie genre you casually saunter over and offer her a helping (re helping of) your hand to calm her down. I'm not entirely convinced. And unfortunately that sums up the fundamental problem with this movie. Relying on its sense of claustrophobia to create its tension and scares - something the choice of filming via reality-cam is no doubt meant to enhance - you'll wish you could suspend your disbelief long enough to be willingly whisked away on Dowdle's zombie rollercoaster. But if it's not the ridiculous lemming-like tendencies of the characters, it's the Hollywood cast, and no doubt thoughts of what their next projects might be, constantly pushing you out of a fairly enjoyable but ultimately forgettable experience.

A tinsel-town remake of the 2007 Spanish film Rec, Quarantine takes you into a downtown Los Angeles apartment building on a seemingly routine call with the local fire-fighters. Seen through the lens of the late-night TV cameraman with the focus on our not unpleasant looking hostess (Sylvia Vidal, Dexter), we're quickly in the realms of panic and fear of having a limb chewed off and discarded like the remains of last night's KFC bargain bucket. Much of the dread is no doubt meant to be generated by her reaction to the unfolding events which she achieves not wholly unsuccessfully. However, when actors start popping up right and left that you recognise from your favourite TV shows (Dania Ramirez, Heroes) and less favourite movies (Jay Hernandez, Hostel), the illusion starts to fall apart. Casting well-knowns in most Hollywood movies is expected, but given that Quarantine comes crawling from underneath the Blair Witch/Cloverfield stable of frights, we're expecting a level of reality here that familiar faces - unless their performances are truly stellar - cannot deliver.

Ultimately only the last act can provide any real scare value as you start to forget about the chosen cast (or they're now off camera being eaten/eating someone!) and we're thrust head first into darkness with a palpable sense of doom and the feeling that there is something more disturbing and nefarious at work than we've been led to believe. However, this late peak can't save the film and even with lesser-knowns it's hard to believe that there'd be that much more engagement to be had with the characters on offer here. The protagonists are fairly intent on bringing about their own wretched demise which we're forced to endure as we cringe at their stupidity. They're remarkably slow at coming to terms with their predicament and the need to protect themselves with anything other than tail-chasing. After all, these are no shambling Romero zombies they're up against. These guys have been to the Zack Snyder school for the exceptionally athletic un-dead and they're in desperate need for a human shaped protein boost.

To summarise, taking its cues from every zombie and reality-cam flick over the last few years, Quarantine tries to inject something new into its chosen sub-genre but falls flat. It's a movie stuck between two stools - the Hollywood money making machine and its blood thirsty indie roots. That's not to say it's not partially fun, it's just that if you want to watch a decent modern zombie flick, you're best off sticking with Shaun of the Dead.