It’s hard to take horror films seriously, largely because so many of them are so very terrible.
It seems like every allegedly scary movie to come out of Hollywood these days is either a remake of a Japanese movie featuring menacing children or a non-stop gory splatterfest that confuses gross with frightening.
“Quarantine” is neither of these things and all the better for it.
Shot in the style of a human interest news report, the story follows reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman Scott (Steve Harris) as they shadow firefighters Jake (Jay Hernandez) and Fletch (Johnathon Schaech) on what seems to be a pretty routine call.
It becomes apparent in relatively short order that this call is anything but routine.
The four, along with the extremely unlucky residents of an apartment building, soon find themselves trapped inside with something extremely unpleasant.
While the film takes its time to really get going, the wait is well worth it.
“Quarantine” is frightening, intense and absolutely unrelenting.
The shaky camera disorients audiences, making the normally cliché and predictable moments where something leaps out of nowhere onscreen scary again.
While it does invite all the usual “Blair Witch Project” comparisons, be assured that these are fallacious.
In actuality, a more fair comparison would be to “Cloverfield,” which came out this past January.
The performances aren’t brilliant, but they aren’t terrible either.
Most of the actors are sufficiently vetted in the horror genre to scream realistically. The cast is entirely devoid of big name star power, which actually has the effect of making the characters more believable.
Director John Erick Dowdle demonstrates his understanding of what is inherently frightening in a horror movie – the unknown.
If we see the monster, then as rational human beings we can remind ourselves that it’s a man in a rubber suit, or computer generated.
But when we don’t know, when everything is veiled in shadow and we can’t be sure what lies around the next corner, then we have to deal with what’s happening onscreen. “Quarantine” draws you in and doesn’t let go.
Unfortunately, the film does go about things rather abruptly. While it does a wonderful job building suspense and tension, there comes a point where things just start happening very quickly. In a way, this enhances the horror, but at the expense of the storyline.
Overall, fans of horror shouldn’t miss this one. “Quarantine” is exemplary of its genre. Audiences may find themselves trembling and in need of fresh change of pants when they leave the theatre.
But, those easily made nauseous by shaky cameras should probably sit it out.
