A very poor, shot-for-shot remake of the superlative Spanish horror flick REC. Despite my fondness for the 'found footage' sub-genre, QUARANTINE is every bit the patience-tester and although it features exactly the same story and action of the Spanish original, it fails in every respect. For one, it's too dark and the camera work is too shaky, meaning that much of the zombie action is impossible to make out. REC was just as dark and also shot on hand-held cameras, yet you could make out every single shot thanks to the time and effort having gone into its undertaking.
The cast is also very poor with the actors lacking the naturalism of their Spanish counterparts. I recognised Jay Hernandez from HOSTEL, but he seems uncomfortable with the format and unsure of himself – and it's not just his character, either. The lead, Jennifer Carpenter (THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE) is horrible and encouraged to screech, scream, shout and hyperventilate for almost all of the latter half of the movie, making her one of the most infuriating leads in a horror film ever. Inevitably, the gore and disgust factor is unnecessarily upped – these zombies are more gooey and have legs that break off – yet the genuine power of the original is nowhere to be found.
The cast is also very poor with the actors lacking the naturalism of their Spanish counterparts. I recognised Jay Hernandez from HOSTEL, but he seems uncomfortable with the format and unsure of himself – and it's not just his character, either. The lead, Jennifer Carpenter (THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE) is horrible and encouraged to screech, scream, shout and hyperventilate for almost all of the latter half of the movie, making her one of the most infuriating leads in a horror film ever. Inevitably, the gore and disgust factor is unnecessarily upped – these zombies are more gooey and have legs that break off – yet the genuine power of the original is nowhere to be found.