Quarantine

Director John Erick Dowdle is once again joined by his brother Drew who co-pen’s the screenplay for this film after their twice as disturbing horror film The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007), further adding onto their newfound love of the shock and horror genre.  This time around the brothers Dowdle incorporate a Cloverfield/Blair Witch Project camera style and pair it with the zombie horror genre to create atmosphere but unfortunately no substance.

I watched and loved Cloverfield because it was an experience that combined both sporadic but controlled camera movements and gave you a cast of characters with a background and personality. Quarantine feels like your walking into the middle of a conversation with people you care nothing about nor will by the end of the film. The character depth in the film is nil and considering the way the cast are simply used as numerous ways of killing a person its no wonder. So was this film scary? No. My audience basically laughed their way through it and I could have drawn you a map according to each characters demise it was so clichéd and illogical. The film has a gross out factor and I counted at least seven people who walked out in the first half hour of the film. Mind you the film runs a whopping 1 hr and 29 minutes long. Back to the camera work though. Cloverfield. No problems. Blair Witch. Other then it being lame. No problem. The camera work in this film was so erratic I went home nursing a hangover sized headache. Was there anything good in the film? I absolutely loved the way the characters moved as zombies. Its freaky looking, much like the cult internet clip Rubber Johnny, the characters were lit up perfectly to maximize the freak out levels but failed to do so because the script wrote these scenes in weakly. Smart move placing this film so close to Halloween. Definitely a film you can grab some friends and go see on Halloween even if all you do is laugh at it.

Most of the Shakefirian community will recall I Know Who Killed Me and will recall the fun factor of sitting through a really bad film but with a good audience that poked fun at it as it rolled and laughing about it. Some will even recall the absolutely awesome time we had at the Grindhouse screening. Quarantine fails even in this aspect. Its got a little bit of entertainment value to it but all together just a poor film that might only be good for a rental.