Rec was Blair witch set in an apartment block with zombies. The horror in Rec was down to highly skilled movie crafting. The plot, script, direction and acting were great. It was a visceral horror movie. All this movie had to do was copy that well. But it copied it badly. In Rec there were some stunning moments. This movie copied those moments, but the timing was wrong, the set-up was wrong. It was actually interesting how bad this copy was, it has given me an even higher appreciation of the original. Also the actors in this movie were generic hollywood types. All very dull. The lead actress seemed like she was trying to act scared. In fact, all the acting in this remake was unconvincing. How could they fail? They knew what to do before filming! I did quite enjoy the banter at the start, which was the only engaging part of the entire movie.

I was hoping for a little more out of Quarantine. The first half of the movie was a complete bore and I had to try to convince myself to keep watching in hopes that it would improve. I was glad I continued watching because it did get more intriguing. The story of the outbreak of a ravenous disease was nothing new, but being locked into an apartment building gave a new claustrophobic twist to the plot. And when all contact to the outside is cut off and the power is shut down, the chaotic pursuit of survival ensues. I won't give away any of the suspense, so check out this pretty decent horror flick for yourself. I give it 6 stars. I hope this review was helpful. -MovieJuice

I myself am a huge fan of zombies and other similar creations in movies, therefore it only seemed logical that my first review was based on a movie which should have had everything I needed! The scares, the thrill, the storyline etc… and in some cases "Quarantine" did not disappoint, however in other areas it was not up to the standard that I was hoping. The acting of a movie is one of the most important components of a movie because if either of these areas fail then the movie is likely as not going to be disastrous. In the case of Quarantine I say the acting was fairly average, not because there were some bad actors/actresses and some good ones but rather that the majority of the characters were not that difficult to portray. For instance, one of the main characters was Angela Vidal a local news reporter (played by Jennifer Carpenter) who throughout the whole movie only really portrayed two or three emotions, in this case she was either the determined news reporter or petrified young woman. As said earlier I am not saying that Jennifer Carpenter or any other member of the cast performed their roles badly and in the case of Jennifer I in fact she played her character in a very believable manner. My main issue with the acting as said before is that there was a lack of variety in characters. However I would like to highlight one character/actor who I thought was great throughout, the character Columbus Short (played by Danny Wilensky) displayed an inner struggle between a cop doing his job and someone who was obviously scared out of their minds. Out of all the cast I thought Danny Wilensky deserved a mention. Although the limit of the characters can be partly blamed on the writing it could also be partly the blame of the director who is supposed to drive the movie. Despite this I think that John Erick Dowdle was a fairly decent director who was able to put his own spin on a movie which was by its definition a remake of the movie "Rec". In particular I liked how the camera man was fairly quiet throughout the movie. As the movie uses the technique of POV (Point Of View) filming it is very easy for the camera man to take some of the attention away from other aspects of a movie. In the case of "Quarantine" this could have meant that certain "jumpy points" would have been less scary because the camera man's intrusion could have spoilt the moments leading up to it. However I do have to say that I found the lack of ingenuity in all aspects of the movie to be quiet disappointing, I cannot think of one point in the movie where I saw an original idea. As stated earlier I am aware that this is a remake so I am not comparing this to "Rec" instead I found myself thinking of the movie "Cloverfield". As Cloverfield was released much earlier in 2008 (it was released in January/February while "Quarantine" was released in October/November).The structure of "Quarantine" is fairly standard for a horror movie, the first half is used to set the scene and to slowly introduce the viewer to the story while the second half is where the viewer gets the thrill of being scared. This again highlights how "Quarantine" is not a very unique movie as it follows the standard horror movie structure. Again this is seen with the plot with the majority of characters being killed off/infected within the last 20/30 minutes of the movie. However despite its lack of ingenuity "Quarantine" does have its positives when it comes to the plot! For instance the movie itself is a fairly realistic representation of what would happen if there was a very infectious disease within a given location. Also the virus itself (rabies or similar) is more realistic than other zombie-like diseases seen in movies. This helped me to relate to the story and the characters which in turn immersed me in the story which meant I jumped more often than if I did not believe in the story.I thought the lack of music was in fact a very good technique used by the Director (John Erick Dowdle) mainly because it made me believe that I was watching something that can actually happen in real life. This is a key aspect for any horror movie as a lack of belief (at least in my case) makes me much less scared of the movie as a whole. However it should be stated that "Quarantine" may have benefited from the tension which music sometimes creates. This is because I found that "Quarantine" was jumpy rather than scary. By this I mean that there were plenty of points in the movie where I jumped however I was never really on the edge of my seat as a result of me being scared witless. In the case of the realism the special effects overall I have to stay that it was decent, the most used special effect was blood and other such injuries. Generally the blood was realistic and the injuries weren't too over the top (e.g. the wounds weren't overly gory etc…).Overall my main impression of "Quarantine" is that it is purely average, it's not original and although it is an entertaining and jumpy movie it is not scary which is what you want a horror movie to be!

There are two ways of looking at 'Quarantine.' The first is that it's actually the (Hollywood) remake of Spanish classic horror film 'REC.' If you've already seen REC then you probably don't need to see the remake. It doesn't bring anything new to the story and is – almost – a shot for shot remake, albeit in English without the subtitles.However, if you can't be bothered watching the Spanish film with English subtitles (and you're also a bit of a horror/zombie fan) then you may appreciate Quarantine. It's one of those 'found footage' films. This basically means that it's shot from point-of-view at all times, as we follow a reporter (Dexter's Jennifer Carpenter) as she reports on a fire crew who have been called in to investigate a building late at night. Of course things go horribly wrong when the Government seal off the building, trapping those left inside with a horde of ravenous zombies.The zombies are the 'modern' type – no George Romero 'shufflers' here. Instead, we have the type who run at you while screaming into the camera and doing their best to bite your head off.It's worth making mention of the film's set. It was a purpose-built apartment complex, made specially for the film. Therefore the cast can run pretty much where they like and you get a good sense of their claustrophobic environment. Plus, having a decent leading actress helps elevate Quarantine over the dozens of run-of-the-mill zombie/B-movies out there.With so many undead movies out there, it's difficult to get that excited over Quarantine. However, if you're not (also) totally sick of 'found footage' movies, haven't seen REC and feel like sitting through quite an intense little offering, then you might like to give this one a go.