Movie Review Quarantine

Quarantine (2008) 

Directed by John Erick Dowdle

Written by John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle 

Starring Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez, Columbus Short, Steve Harris, Dania Ramirez 

Release Date October 10th, 2008

Published October 10th, 2008 

Yawn! Another horror remake. Ah, but there is a twist this time. Quarantine isn't a Japanese or Chinese ripoff but rather a trashing of a Spanish horror movie. At least the film has one innovation.

Jennifer Carpenter stars in Quarantine as a reality TV host whose assignment this week is to follow the Los Angeles fire department on a 911 call. First though we are introduced to her assigned fire fighters. Jay Hernandez and Jonathan Schaech are the firefighters and they are a couple of likable sorts. Hernandez is knowledgeable and respectful. Schaech is boorish and flirty. Carpenter takes to them both quickly and in another movie this would be quite a love triangle. In Quarantine however, these attractive actors are merely bait.

Finally getting a call, Jennifer jumps aboard a fire engine with her fighters and soon arrives at the scene of a medical emergency in an old apartment building. Inside one of the apartments an old woman has been screaming in pain and not responding to the knocks and calls of neighbors and super. The firefighters arrive with the police and eventually break down the door. Inside the old woman has a crazed look on her face and soon she has attacked and bitten a cop so badly that he bleeds to death. As Hernandez and a cop played by Columbus Short tend to the injured cop, they and the rest of the building's tenants find themselves locked inside the building by the CDC.

Someone or something is infecting the residents and the CDC is not about to let anyone carry it to the outside. This sets up a cat and mouse game between the infected, flesh eating zombie types and the trapped tenants, cop, firefighters, our intrepid reporter and her loyal cameraman (Steve Harris). The film is shot entirely from the cameraman's perspective, as if we are watching the documentary in progress. Yes, for those who suffer from shaky cam-itis aka motion sickness, Quarantine is one of those movies. Like Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project, Quarantine operates on the guise that these events took place and we are watching after the fact.

If only being unoriginal and a cause of mass projectile vomiting and dizziness were Quarantine's only issue. Sadly, star Jennifer Carpenter's performance rivals the remake and motion sickness issues by being the least believable TV personality since Angelina Jolie's dopey reporter in Life of Something Like It. Acting more like a spoiled teenager than a TV reporter, Carpenter giggles and flirts and exploits her access to the firemen for no other purpose than she thinks they're cute. She tells the camera that she has always wanted to be a fireman but I find it hard to believe she wanted to be anything other than a magnet for cute boys.

Things devolve further as we get into crisis mode in the apartment building. Now, no one would ever assume when they are responding to an emergency that you might end up dealing with cannibalistic, rabies ridden zombies. However, after the old woman has killed the cop and a firefighter someone should become a little more suspicious and cautious. But no. Instead characters still wander into dark areas throughout the building, fail to stick together and are picked off one by one as they remain heavily in denial about their situation.

I didn't buy a second of it. Carpenter breaks the believability with her ditz reporter and everyone else puts off because the plot requires them to be tools. As one after another is picked off our involvement with the story and the characters becomes less and less until we get to the inevitable end that we absolutely know is coming.

The style gives away the ending, not that there was much suspense involved anyway. The point and purpose to a movie like Quarantine is to try and frighten with atmosphere and camera tricks. That it fails is a function of poor craftsmanship and a lack of deeper ideas than a scary noise off camera that suddenly becomes something on camera.