Quarantine: Breakout in Tight Spaces

This is the movie I've been waiting for. It explains why Cloverfield fell short in places. This is a movie with the shakey cam, the shakey cam is part of the story, and when the violence and horror become the most intense, it is the flashlight and nighvision. The movie's flaws in logic are outside the camera use.

Quarantine is the recording of a cameraman and reporter as they shadow a crew of firefighters (not fireMEN like the movie continually misuses the name). They answer a call to an old apartment complex about a lady screaming in the next room over, is met with two police officers, break in the door, and find a lady foaming at the mouth. Violence insues, and as soon as they are rushing to the door to get out, the Center for Disease Control has sealed off the building, refusing to let anyone at by means of pointing guns and reinforcing the doors shut.

Anyone who has seen zombie movies knows what is happening. The government is being the bad guy and the individual interests of people prevents the group from adapting survivialist tactics necessary to survive. We've seen it down the road a dozen times. What makes it more effective here is it is more believable. The cam is used for a realistic tone (not the fantasy tone in Cloverfield, where it is a monster from no where), and the speed of the CDC in sealing off the building was not quick work, but rather something that was realized earlier and traced to the apartment. How it spreads and what the disease that turns them into rampaging killers is something that can be easily figured out, but it still slipped by me. I feel embarrassed I didn't see it earlier, but the degree of mystery, being half-believable, and the realistic tone of camera has been one of the best combinations since the black-and-white tone of Night of the Living Dead in a racist farmhouse.

The movie also carries a degree of humor. They are using the camera and are very aware of it. The police officer doesn't like the camera being around, but changes his position as soon as he feels the CDC has screwed him over. The reporter insists the camera stays on, not for marketing, but as an attempt to persuade the CDC to let them out by exposing them if they stay trapped in. When this doesn't work, she falls apart. I'm surprised the cameraman doesn't drop the camera more often, but the camera's presence is very noticable to both the audience and story, instead of merely a means of providing a point of view (again, Cloverfield). This adds to the quality of the work.

I recall this movie being described as a roller-coaster. That is most accurate in how it ends, running around with limited light, unsure of where it will go next. There are many jumps it will provide, and while these are nothing special to those use to the horror films, they are much better than the jumps in the recent Dark House films (The Grudge, The Messangers, The Return) where something jumps out, taking up half the screen and moving from dead silence to load music. Quarantine builds and builds and doesn't disappoint as it climaxes. It is as much fun watching the brutal violence as it is running from the infected, as it is to learn more and more about what happened to lead up to these events. It is not a detective story, but more shocks along the way.

I will admit, among all my praise, the ending leaves something to be desired, like all films with a camera like this. The other flaw is the characters are only given so much depth. The police officer acts like a police officer. We see him lose it only so much. The reporter is young and inexperienced, and spends much of her on-camera time playing around the firehouse and flirting with the firefighters like a schoolgirl. It adds to why the firefighters would defend her, but there's not much else to any characters. The residents are colorful variety, including a drunk, a mother and daughter, and people who don't speak English. I pretty much summarized their full depth in that alone.

Is it entertaining? Very much.

Is it for everyone? Yes. Some will grow tired of the shakey cam, but the better quality and more aspects of the story .

Is it memorable? Somewhat. It will stand up better than Cloverfield, and probably land on some "100 Scariest Movies" lists, but not a definite for all.