Worth the Exposure

Quarantine

Directed by John Erick Dowdle

Screen Gems

On the surface, Quarantine seems to be just another in a long line of films using what appears to the new trend in suspense - first-person point-of-view, handheld camera footage present ing confusing images that add to the audience's discomfort. It worked like a charm in 1999 with The Blair Witch Project and in 2007's Cloverfield. It is, however, becoming the new cliche - movies like Diary of the Dead or the apparently stalled-release-date Poughkeepsie Tapes (ironically directed by Dowdle as well) don't seem as popular as some would hope. Quarantine does manage to hit the mark in a number of ways, but it stumbles around for a time trying to find some solid footing before it gets there.

Jennifer Carpenter - an actress who appears to be carving out quite the niche for herself in the horror genre (Exorcism of Emily Rose and Dexter are both solid resume lines) - plays Angela Vidal, a journalist shadowing firefighters in LA. The film begins with the standard messing-around type footage we've come to expect: a standard night in the firehouse - complete with amateur pole-sliding, locker room antics, and waiting, waiting, waiting for a call. She and her cameraman Scott (Steve Harris) share a few inside jokes based on the fact that the firefighters forget their mics are still on and talk about Angie behind her back; she puts them in their place and the night continues. When a call does finally come through, Angie and Scott join Fletch (you wouldn't know it, but played by Johnathon Schaech) and Jake (Jay Hernandez) on the truck to a building where police have already arrived. They investigate a disturbance in an old woman's apartment and chaos ensues.

John Erick Dowdle and co-screenwriter, producer, and brother Drew Dowdle adapted Quarantine from the 2007 Spanish film [Rec]. A single-location setting in an apartment building allows for claustrophobia to set in, closely followed by panic once the authorities barricade all exits and everyone, including the firefighters and police officers, become trapped inside. They are attacked by what can best be described as contemporary zombies (you know - red eyes, really fast, really lethal) and the concern centralizes on getting everyone out safely.

Like in Cloverfield, the viewers never really get any concrete answers as to what causes the infection. Lawrence (Greg Germann), a vet who lives in the building, offers his best diagnosis - rabies. Yet rabies, we learn, doesn't manifest so quickly, and it appears that the CDC (Center for Disease Control) techs who arrive on the premises don't know what it is, either.

While watching this film, I was getting tired of the same ol' thing - fast-moving zombies, jumpy, nausea-inducing camera movement, the urge to press pause so I could actually SEE what I was looking at during action sequences.

However, once Quarantine's second half rolled around, I was pleasantly surprised to become completely engrossed in the panic that set in as the remaining characters fought for survival. The pace picked up dramatically and my sympathies for them increased tenfold as I imagined I really would not have been able to hold it together had I been in their situation. The discoveries they make toward the end, while not really clearing up any mysteries, are intriguing enough to capture your attention as they stumble around - because, of course, the power has gone out and the battery for the light on the camera has pretty much gone kaput. The last few sequences are certainly unsettling, and the boredom that threatened to sink this film had completely dissipated.

When I go to the theater to see a horror film, I want something exciting, riveting, and new. While Quarantine may not be presenting anything all that new, it certainly is exciting, and, by the end, wholly riveting. Definitely worth a look this Halloween.

Quarantine is now playing in theaters.