Quarantine

Quarantine ~ This is the 2008 American remake of [REC] that I reviewed a few months back. It begins relatively the same as the original and stars Jennifer Carpenter, better known as Dexter’s little sister. Most notable is how young, spunky and much more likable she is in this role as a reality TV reporter spending the night on call with firefighters.

The story is the same and even the sets look the same. And it’s ‘super-rabies’ instead of zombies, but hey, an undead rose by any other name, ya know? Also the idea of it being filmed as it happens is lessened by a more subtle technique. That’s good, giving this a more film-like quality rather than the distracting handy-cam method. It’s still there, just less so.

The real saving grace of this version is that Carpenter is sympathetic to the viewer, while in the original, there was a point where I wanted the zombies to hurry up and kill Manuela Velasco already. I think writer/director brothers Drew and John Erick Dowdle made all the right decisions for this remake. Keep an eye out for their M. Night produced Devil come 2011. Quarantine is worth a look, especially if you’ve seen [REC].