DVD
REVIEW: QUARANTINE
02/15/09
All filmmakers strive for
realism in their films and what better way to show this than
shooting the action from a single cameraman’s point of view.
The end result looks like something that was shot
accidentally and without professional lighting or film
cameras. Although they do use professional lighting and
cameras. Just like the box-office hit Cloverfield was
filmed; Quarantine is shot in the same vein, expect here the
cameraman works for a news team and the reporter Angela
Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) is shooting a segment for Night
Shift. This night Angela is covering the night shift at a
fire department where she meets fireman Jake (Jay Hernandez)
and Fletcher (Johnathon Schaech).
The movie spends a lot of time at the fire department
introducing the characters. I guess the director was trying
to get us to connect with the characters and make us feel
something for them for when things start heating up, but ten
minutes into the movie I thought I might have put in the
wrong DVD and was watching a strange documentary on the
attics of fireman. Things do heat up when the fire
department gets a call of an emergency at an apartment
building. Unfortunately, Angela and her cameraman decide to
tag along.
Once at the apartment complex they find that one of the
tenants is covered in blood and foaming at the mouth. The
tenant attacks one of the assisting police officers and
while they try to escort him out of the building to seeking
medical attention, they find that the building has been
locked down by the CDC. Another tenant, a veterinarian
explains that the victims of the virus are exhibiting rabies
like symptoms, however this virus progresses much faster.
From this point on, the movie is like any other zombie
movie, the survivors are picked off one by one. Lucky for
the camera man, he gets to live for almost the entire movie.
The movie spends a small amount of time explaining how the
virus came to be, which I thought was the most interesting
part of the movie. I wish they would have had more on this.
Quarantine does has some pretty suspenseful moments and the
way the action is shot using the shaky cam makes it look
authentic. However, if you’ve seen one to many zombie movie you
pretty much have the plot down. Quarantine doesn’t offer
anything new here, expect that the virus is now some form of
rabies and the only interesting revelations about how the
virus came to be don’t go anywhere.
Review By Brad Peterson
brad@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1 aspect ratio)
AUDIO:
English 5.1 Dolby Digital French
5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH French & Spanish
Commentary with writer/director John Erick Dowdle and
writer/producer Drew Dowdle
Locked In: The making of Quarantine -
Writer/director John Erick Dowdle and writer/producer Drew
Dowdle discuss how they wanted to make the movie look real
for the youtube generation. (10:06)
Dressing the infected: Robert Halls’s make-up design
- Robert Hall, special make-up designer, discuses how they
decided that they didn’t want the infected to look too much
like zombies. (7:30)
Anatomy of a stunt - Director John Erick Dowdle and
Stunt Cooridnator Lance Gilbert show how they filmed the
amazing fall stunt. (3:24)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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