Movie Review: Quarantine

A TV reporter and her cameraman are assigned to spend the night shift with a Los Angeles Fire Station. After a routine 911 call takes them to a small apartment building, they find police officers already on the scene in response to blood curdling screams coming from one of the apartment units. They soon learn that a woman living in the building has been infected by something unknown. After a few of the residents are viciously attacked, they try to escape with the news crew in tow, only to find that the CDC has quarantined the building.

If Cloverfield gave you motion sickness, I would strongly advice you to skip this as well. The director tells the story from the viewpoint of camera crew, so there is a lot of jumpy/shakey movement, especially when a lot of the action occurs. I didn't personally get queasy, but I didn't in Cloverfield either. Just a warning though.

The style of shooting it did make it come out more claustrophobic though and sort of gave me the feeling I was trapped in the apartment building with the people (a place I assure you that I wouldn't want to be). At times it detracts from the story though as it becomes too insane to tell what's happening really, especially when they run up or down the stairs a couple of times.

Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) is in the lead role and I thought she was great... until about the last 15 minutes. She plays a strong character, similar to her role on Dexter, who doesn't take any guff and seems fearless, but towards the end of the movie she begins acting hysterically and I think it gets a bit annoying. I was happy to see Jay Hernandez (Hostel, Hostel II) in a major role as well as he's one of my current favorite horror guys. The only other person in it who I recognized was Dania Ramirez (Maya on Heroes) in a small role.

Plenty of gore, lots of shocks and scares and a pretty quick pace once the call to the firehouse gets make it pretty much a non-stop thrillride. It's a stripped down film that's pretty much exactly what's advertised. No crazy twists or complicated plot... they go to the building, get locked in and try to survive. It's got enough suspense and is well executed enough to please most horror fans I think.

8/10