Quarantine is a Brilliant Portrayal of the Ills of Man
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Quarantine Gives a Chiling View of Man and asks the question; ‘Can Man Save Himself… From Himself?
Horror Queen Says, Bloody Thumbs Up!
Written by BHM Contributor Horror Queen
October 10, 2008
Quarantine Movie Trailer
Release: October 10, 2008
Directed by: John Erick Dowdle
Written by: John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle (Screenplay) and Jaume Balagueró, Luiso Berdejo, Paco Plaza (motion picture "Rec")
Starring:
Jennifer Carpenter as Angela Vidal
Steve Harris as Scott Percival
Jay Hernandez as Jake
Johnathon Schaech as George Fletcher
Columbus Short as Danny Wilensky
Andrew Fiscella as James McCreedy
Writer-Director John Erik Dowdle succeeds in his portrayal of a large scale concept of horror encapsulated into the intimate view of a camera lens. In other words, Quarantine exposes the atrocities of man by allowing the viewer to experience them first hand as one of the victims.
Little did local television reporter Angela Vidal and her trusty video cameraman Scott Percival know when they went to cover a day-in-the-life at a Los Angeles Fire Station that they would actually be invited on the 911 call every firefighter dreads: A 10-alarm fire? No, the one where you end up quarantined by your own government in a building
full�of savage zombie-like killers – permanently. Oh wait…is that unrealistic? Not really, given the quarantined area is labeled a “threat to national security”.
Angela’s day started out pleasant enough - with an opportunity to spend time in a busy fire station complete with the famed Wilshire the Fire Dog, and hopefully see some on-the-job action (sliding down the fire pole repeatedly was getting boring and beginning to chafe her legs). What Angela clearly lacks in journalistic talent and experience, she makes up for in determination. And Scott helps out by obediently following her every move with his video camera. In fact the entire film is shot from the view of his camera lens, which proves to be much less disjointed and annoying in Quarantine than in predecessors like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield.
The firefighters welcome the attention and even agree to let Angela to go on a “routine” call with them to an apartment building. It seems one of the elderly residents has gone a bit berserk and locked herself in her apartment, screaming loudly enough to frighten the other residents into calling 911. As it turns out the woman, along with a few other residents in the building are plagued with what appears to be some sort of hybrid rabies
virus, complete with aggressive behavior, frothing at the mouth, etc. And to make matters worse those who have it are prone to attacking others and passing the illness�along with their bite. Think Old Yeller meets Night of the Living Dead. And this time we’re right there with the other victims of the zombie-like attacks – the firefighters, the police, the neighbors, the reporter and our host - the cameraman. Oh and a few random rats.
Early on we feel a sense of security in the fact that firefighters and policemen are at the scene. But this quickly falls away as we realize not only are they equal prey and no match to those infected with the virus, but they have also been ostracized by the rest of the world in this “quarantine”, complete with gunmen outside poised to kill anyone who tries to escape. Oh and let’s not forget the ominous televised statement by officials outside: “The building has been evacuated”. Will be evacuated is more like it. One way or another.
And don’t you love it when children turn into zombies in films and adults still go to hug or comfort them? In this case its little Briana, clearly showing signs of the illness, who gets to take a juicy bite out of the adult that lovingly coaxes “come here honey”. Duh.
Quarantine places us in the role of the victim behind the lens, yes. But are we really the victim? After all, man created this disease in the first place. And when faced with a diseased attacker the cameraman uses his only weapon - the camera – to pummel her to death, oddly placing us in the roll of murderer. So one can’t help but wonder…is it too late for man to save himself…from himself?
Horror Queen Says: A Bloody Thumbs Up!
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