Quarantine gives a good dose of undead

By Faheem Ahmed     10/23/08 7:00pm

Ahh, can you smell that faint whiff of crisp burning in the evening air? No, it's not that fat kid who sits next to you in organic chemistry. You know what that refreshing scent is? It's the fragrance of changing seasons, falling leaves and autumnal splendor . and it's the smell of Halloween. Yes, the greatest holiday of all time!The reason I love Halloween so much is because it ushers in a full month of horror movies. While the horror genre may not be my absolute favorite, it sure as hell is the most entertaining. The adrenaline rush, the goosebumps, the little hairs that rise on the back of your neck, the boobies (you can't make a good horror flick without a proper set of gratuitous boobies). These are the amazing offerings of the genre - not to mention the subtle acting, twisting plots and audacious exploration of the dark corridors of our macabre psyches.

Because I love Halloween, I decided to watch Quarantine to kick off the horror season.

Quarantine is filmed in the first-person perspective, placing the audience behind the camera for the entire movie. This technique is not original, having been used for the revolutionary Blair Witch Project and the recent Cloverfield, but it frames the movie well and delivers countless jolts to the audience, who feel like they're in the movie.

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Quarantine centers on a journalist, played by Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter), and her cameraman, played by Steve Harris (The Practice), who decide to make a video journal on a precinct of the local fire department. They follow a couple of fire fighters on a routine call to an old apartment building.

Turns out the apartment building isn't on fire. It's full of freaking zombies! The government locks the camera crew, firemen and apartment tenants into the building for fear of infection. The survivors must find their way out without having their faces chewed off.

Although Quarantine is predictable, it is still extremely entertaining. The first-person camera view rejuvenates the genre, allowing the audience to truly experience the characters' dread and despair. I clasped my hands over my mouth numerous times because I didn't want the monsters to hear me around the corner of the pitch-black corridor. The music is also spot-on, a haunting score that shrieks discordantly at startling moments.

The script of the film is pretty simple, and the characters are stereotypical cutouts, but I didn't find myself annoyed by their one-dimensionality. Carpenter is adequate as the journalist, but I wanted to bitch-slap her a couple of times toward the end for crying so much. My favorite character, however, is the one you see least: Harris, the camera guy. He curb-stomps the shit out of a couple of zombies.

All in all, Quarantine is surprisingly enjoyable and delivers the formulaic shocks and startles. I recommend you see it in the theater with a group of fun friends or rent it on a stormy night when you want a random girl to squeeze you.

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