Quarantine (2008)

I had my reservations about seeing this movie but I finally made the trek down to our local Blockbuster two days ago and rented it, and boy am I glad I did! I really liked it, I have always been a fan of the man behind the camera sort of film, ever since Blair Witch came out in the '90's... however I didn't see Cloverfield, so really Blair Witch was the only experience I'd ever had in that area. But whatever. I liked its style, end of story. Apparently Quarantine is a remake of a 2007 movie called [Rec], little known fact. Haven't seen that one, but apparently it is actually favored over the newer version so I think I will be checking it out soon.

The basic idea of Quarantine goes like this - television reporter Angela Sassy Pants and her token cameraman are doing a story during the night shift with LA's finest fire fighters. After many an awkwardly placed innuendo between Angela and nameless fire fighter with or without a mustache, a 911 call takes all the fire fighters in da house plus Angela and cameraman to an apartment building that from the outside seems... well, like there's no real emergency. What eventually comes out is that some little old biddy living in the building has been infected by something "unknown" (unknown? Seriously, my first thought in a zombie movie is always- do you people never watch movies? Or is the main idea behind all zombie films that zombie cinema doesn't exist within their reality? 'Cos it really bugs). /end mini rant

So after a few residents within the building are brutally attacked (yeah, it takes them that long to start figuring things out, real geniuses we're working with here. Even in the absence of zombie knowledge, you'd think upon seeing someone take a chunk out of someone else's neck, you'd get the idea that maybe something has gone terribly wrong), they try and escape only to find that the CDC has quarantined (hmmm, clever!) the building. Everything goes positively haywire after that naturally, people start biting each other left and right and eventually the power to the building is cut, leaving the survivors in total darkness, with only the glowey green light of the camera's night vision option to guide them. Overall I really liked this movie! Everything was pretty much very predictable but in a fun way, like you were excited to be able to call what was gonna happen next but somehow you were still wracked with nerves and maybe even jumped a little when the time came. I thought the dialogue was very campy and it was neat that they actually gave the man behind the camera a role. He wasn't just the man behind the camera, they were constantly letting us know that there was a person behind the lens and we even got to see him on the other side a few times.

The whole ambiance of the movie was especially intensified for me because I was watching it with liquor and a friend, so we had the whole clutching to each other and screeching in hushed voices things like "Why the fuck are they still walking toward her?!" and "How the hell do they still not get what's going on here? OMIGOD LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!" thing going on. It was great fun. I do have a couple bones to pick, not really bagging on the movie, just general things I always ask myself in zombie films... One, why are people stupid and don't recognize the sights and sounds of imminent danger? Especially in Quarantine, we got peeps friggin' foaming at the mouth and emitting a very distinct growl mixed with a wheeze sort of thing that seriously only the UNDEAD could really produce. Seriously. How do people not see those warning signs?? Not to mention they're showing very cannibalistic tendencies. And yet, it takes these guys at least three 'rabid' humans before they realize, maybe taking them into the common area where everybody else is and simply tying them up ISN'T the best idea. And two, whyyy do they always gotta jump to rabies? I know it's the easiest explanation in the apparent absence of not knowing what the fuck a zombie is but seriously, I don't think humans that are infected with rabies just start eating each other. It's just not right. The entire movie was very reminiscent of Blair Witch for me which I obviously really enjoyed, especially the ending. There is nothing better than 20-30 seconds of shaky camera action and intense suspense. I loved every second of it!