Film Review: Quarantine

I went to see this film last night with a small group of friends and thoroughly enjoyed it. The group consensus by the end of the film was that it was “amazing”.

The film starts out innocently enough as a reporter and her cameraman are shadowing a couple of firefighters. However, when their first call of the night leads them to an apartment complex on reports of “strange screams” the movie takes a turn for the worst. The building falls under strict quarantine, as tenants begin showing signs of aggression and communication degradation. The reporter, Angela, and cameraman, Scott, soon find themselves among the ranks of the infected. The virus portrays rabies-like symptoms, of which there is no known cure, and the group of uninfected rush to survive, not only from becoming infected, but from being killed by those already infected.

I can safely say that no other film has had my adrenaline pumping as much as this film did. Personally, I loved Cloverfield and found the first-person P.O.V. to be gorgeous. Quarantine is filmed in the same first-person P.O.V. and, in my opinion, delivers even better than Cloverfield did. I will complain that, for the first 15 minutes of the movie, I felt nauseous and wasn’t sure if it was the shaky camerawork or the fact that I had eaten nearly an entire package of Buncha Crunch. However, given that the feeling subsided, I’m inclined to blame the candy.

Quarantine brings back the creepiest elements of The Blair Witch Project and delivers massive amounts of entertainment. In the theater, one patron even described the film as being as culty as Night of the Living Dead. I agree with him. This film delivers so much, not only to casual moviegoers, but to horror fans all across the board. With just the right amount of gore, amazing camera tricks, and leaving out just the right amount of information, it really draws to viewer in.

The film fed more on suspense and thrill rather than any fear or long-term nightmare inducing memories. I’m prone to nightmares, which was why The Orphanage scared the Hell out of me, but Quarantine did not have any long-term place in my memory of fear. Quarantine is guaranteed to get your adrenaline pumping and delivers more than I would have expected of a remake of a foreign horror film ([●REC] being the original, Spanish film).

I entered the theatre with expectations of disappointment (modern American horror films generally don’t deliver) and left in awe. I have to highly recommend Quarantine to anyone that likes horror, but has a tight enough stomach for shaky camera work. The official site is here.

Film Review: The Orphanage

So, in order to diversify my blog portfolio, I decided maybe it would be good to get away from economics/politics for once. After all, we can all tell by the big 623 point drop in the DOW today that the bailout did absolutely nothing and that “scaredy cat” politicians reacted poorly to the situation.

ANYWAY, The Orphanage (El orfanato) is a film directed by J.A. Bayona and produced by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth). The film is one of the only horror/suspense movies that has actually made me scream during the film. The film style focuses less on horror/haunting and more on suspense/audience expectation. It begins with a woman named Laura moving into the orphanage that she grew up in with her husband, Carlos, and son, Simón. Simón is incredibly imaginative and has invisible/imaginary friends. Things become odd though as, after a trip to the beach, Simón becomes seemingly obsessed with one friend in particular, Tomás. Simón also begins talking to/about “other children”. Laura soon realizes that the children Simón is seeing/talking to are friends she had in the orphanage and that the place she grew up loving has a dark, haunted past.

Unfortunately, I can’t go into the story any further without spoiling things. The only downside that anyone seems to have after seeing the film is that it was in Spanish with English subtitles. I had no problem with this, but for some it was an issue. For those that don’t have issues reading subtitled films, I highly recommend this film. The official site is here.