Wednesday, March 10, 2010

'Quarantine' brings nothing new to the screen

Quarantine (2008)
Starring: Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Jay Hernandez, Columbus Short, Rade Serbedzija and Greg Germann
Director: John Eric Dowdle
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

A television reporter and her cameraman (Carpenter and Harris) are trapped in an apartment building with a dozen other people who are being turned into rabid killers by a strange disease.


"Quarantine" is a predictable monster/zombie movie that is set apart somewhat by the clever device of having the camera recording the events present within the story, with the camera operator being one of the characters. It's a film that will hold your attention with a number of good scares and plenty of intensity, but it won't offer a single surprise if you're a seasoned horror movie watcher. (And, given the film's R-rating, I don't think the audience will have many in it who haven't seen this kind of story half a dozen times before.

The actors all do decent jobs, but they can't do anything about the fact that there isn't anything in this film you haven't seen before. (The lack originality of the film is even more profound that it seems on the surface, as it's an American remake of Spanish film from 2007 titled "[REC]").