Product Details

• Studio: Screen Gems
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (167 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001E95ZRO

Product Description

Amazon.com

Based on the Spanish-made chiller [REC], Quarantine is an effective piece of scare machinery that derives most of its terror by viewing the action from the perspective of a cameraman covering a routine emergency call that blooms into a nightmare. Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter) is a TV host who accompanies a firefighting unit on a disturbance call at a decrepit apartment building. Once inside, the group discovers that the tenants are infected with a disease that has turned them into ravenous cannibals--and that all possible exits have been sealed off by a government-issued quarantine. As POV horror goes, QuarantineThe Blair Witch Project with the super-sized shocks of Cloverfield (without its nausea-inducing camerawork), and it largely delivers in both departments. Characters are stock at best, and the relentless jumping and shrieking gets wearying before the end credits, but the cast is game, especially Carpenter (a world class screamer, as established in The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and Jay Hernandez as one of the firemen, and the technical aspects (including some gruesome gore) are top-notch. -- Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY SOMEONE GETS THE VIDEO CAMERA GIMMICK RIGHT!, October 2, 2009

By	! MR. KNOW IT ALL ;-b "DR SHOCK" (TRI STATE AREA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Quarantine (DVD)

'Quarantine' isn't all that an original idea, but it's so well executed that it is probably one of the best horror films I've seen lately. What sets this film apart from most of these gimmicky video camera films is that in this film it actually seems real! I liked 'Cloverfeild' but the shaky camera and utterly unrealistic situations made me give it a 2 star rating. (i.e.. when there is a three hundred foot monster wrecking a building about a mile or so off to your left, you don't video your friends walking in front of you!) You never get a good look at the monster and if you had the nerve to keep your video camera on you would certainly be filming this thing!

Enough ranting about that film and lets get to this film. 'Quarantine' has the perfect set up to make the video camera make sense. The camera man is part of a news team and he wants to get the goods on tape! This film is very claustrophobic and I have never seen the "video camera gimmick" work better. The film runs at a fever pace and never lets up and I found the actors to be above average with genuine scares a plenty! What more could you ask for from a horror film!

I give this film 5 stars for executing an over used gimmick well and keeping me on the edge of my seat for an hour and thirty minutes!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tense and chilling horror film..., February 23, 2009

By	Brent Soileau "Purplehound!" (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Quarantine (DVD)

I really liked "Quarantine" despite the number of people who bash it. Yes, it's an example of a serious and debilitating problem in the US horror movie genre right now in that it's a remake of another movie. I'm sure most horror fans like myself are tired of seeing unnecessary remakes of classic horror movies we've already seen and are ready to see some original stories being written. However, when the film in question is a remake of a foreign-language film and it sticks to the original concept and story, then I don't have so much of a problem. And so it is with "Quarantine".

Yes, it's a remake of the Spanish movie [*REC]. Since the two films are almost identical, I prefer this one since I don't have to take my eyes off the action to read subtitles. "Quarantine" is a claustrophobic, tense, and chilling little film and I enjoyed it very, very much. Jennifer Carpenter put in a great performance, as did the rest of the cast, and if you enjoy good horror movies you will enjoy this one. Is it a milestone in the horror film genre? No. But then again, milestones are few and far between, hence the term. I *can* tell you that "Quarantine" is the most memorable horror film I've seen since it premiered in US theaters and pretty much kept me on the edge of my seat once things kicked into gear.

My only qualm with the DVD release is the price. $19.95 for a single edition DVD with so few extras? Come on... Not cool, guys.

Cheers

B

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Far better than the previews would lead you to believe., June 22, 2009

By	Graves (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quarantine (DVD)

Quarantine is a much better movie than its previews would lead you to believe. Previews make it look like people are trapped in an old building with zombies running amok in it. Maybe they came up from the sewers.

In fact it follows a reality TV reporter who is following an LA fire crew on calls. They go to a building when neighbors have reported screams coming from the apartment of an old lady. What follows is the outbreak of a savage, mind destroying disease where tenants and first responders find them sealed in with those already infected, by the CDC.

Like Cloverfield and Blair Witch, the film is shot from the single camera view of the reality reporter's camera man. Unlike those films the camera work is clean and does not distract the viewer. Watch the long shot when a call comes as the camera man has to follow the reporter down a hall, a flight of stairs and into a truck and realize it was all done in one take without cuts. The first 20 minutes of the film are the `reality show' walking around the fire house, talking to members of the fire crew and setting the stage by letting you meet the key players in the film. This is clearly the set up but it doesn't feel stilted. You don't feel like saying `get on with it" because you care about the characters. Carpenter, as the on air talent is likeable and believable, going from bubbly on air talent, to real reporter as things turn serious to scared human as she realizes just how deep in they are. And she takes the viewer with her.

Previews make this look like just another zombie film. There are certainly elements of that in Quarantine but for the genre it is so much better than much of the competition. They even have an explanation, scary in how reasonable it is, for what is happening. Is it "Sound of Music?" of course not. It is a horror film, but one in which the director has taken a lot of care to make the whole thing frighteningly possible.