Monday, August 31, 2009

A Very Scary Movie

My sister and I saw Quarantine when it came out at the midnight release last year. We are seasoned horror movie viewers and don't scream or squirm at blood or gore. We have seen all the classics, the new remakes, and everything in between. Quarantine, however, came as a big surprise. The premise is this: a reporter and her camera man are following the local fire department overnight for a news story. They all go to a seemingly routine medical emergency, when all hell breaks loose. An old woman attacks healthy strong firemen, who after the attack exibit the same symptoms as the old woman. The doors and windows to the apartment building are locked and sealed by the CDC. Why won't they be let out? What will happen to them?

This movie has the shaky camera point of view a la Blair Witch Project. I usually don't like it because it's overdone and kind of cheesy (read Cloverfield), but it was the saving grace of this film. Because the camera man is more concerned about saving his own skin than filming zombie attacks, the camera isn't always where it needs to be to see what's going on. I think the unknown makes this film scarier because whatever is in my head is way more freaky than anything any director can put on a screen. Also, there are a lot of jump-out-and-scare-you moments, which get me every time. The suspense was palpable in scenes where they were exploring the apartment and generally being nosy, as well as in the end of the film. My sister and I clutched at each other for dear life and even screamed. I have never done this in a theater (except for Eight Legged Freaks; it was because I'm afraid of spiders, but that's different). The ending is amazing, except they showed the last frame in the commercials. Why would they do that? I hate that trailers today give everything in the movie away. Anyways, you should really watch this movie because it scared the crap out of me.

4 comments:

vvb32 reads said...

ooo, wonder if i could handle this one. i was scared with the blair witch project.

titania86 said...

This is so much scarier than the Blair Witch Project! Maybe you can rent it and if it's too much, you can always just turn it off. I really want to see the original it was based on, [REC].

Anonymous said...

[REC] was much better, Quarantine is just a sort a Hollywood ripoff that leeches off the first major success in Spanish horror films for a while. It's OK but we didn't need a remake.

titania86 said...

To the anonymous person,

I would love to see [REC], but unfortunately I haven't gotten to see it yet. My sister thought it was awesome and wanted to compare it to the American remake. I completely agree that America leeching off the successes of foreign countries is unneccessary and that foreign film should just be brought over and shown here. (Which is why I won't be seeing the remake of Let the Right One In.) But, alas, the majority of Americans don't want to think (or read) when they see a film, which is very disappointing to me. If I ever do get to see [REC], you bet I'll review it here and compare it to Quarantine.