Quarantine (2008 film)

Last updated

Quarantine
Quarantineposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Erick Dowdle
Screenplay by
  • John Erick Dowdle
  • Drew Dowdle
Based on REC
by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyKen Seng
Edited byElliott Greenberg
Production
companies
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date
  • October 10, 2008 (2008-10-10)(United States)
Running time
89 minutes [1]
CountriesUnited States
Spain
LanguagesEnglish
Spanish
Budget$12 million [2]
Box office$41.3 million [2]

Quarantine is a 2008 found footage horror film directed and co-written by John Erick Dowdle, produced by Sergio Aguero, Doug Davison, and Roy Lee, and co-written by Drew Dowdle, being a remake of the 2007 Spanish film Rec . The film stars Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez, Columbus Short, Greg Germann, Steve Harris, Dania Ramirez, Rade Šerbedžija, and Johnathon Schaech. It follows a reporter and her cameraman assigned to a pair of Los Angeles firemen who follow a distress call to an apartment building where they discover a deadly mutated strain of rabies spreading among the building's occupants; escape becomes impossible once the government descends upon the building to prevent the virus from spreading beyond it, and the pair continue to record the events that unfold inside, of which the film itself is the result. Quarantine features no actual musical score, using only sound effects, and differs in its characters, dialogue, and explanation of the virus from its source material.

Contents

Quarantine was released in the United States by Sony's subsidiary Screen Gems on October 10, 2008. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $41.3 million worldwide at the box office. It was followed by a sequel, Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011).

Plot

On the evening of March 11, 2008, news reporter Angela Vidal and her cameraman Scott Percival are filming their report on the night shift at the Los Angeles Fire Department. Two firefighters, Jake and George Fletcher, receive an emergency call from a local apartment building. Screams from the apartment of elderly resident Mrs. Espinosa were heard by the landlord Yuri, his wife Wanda, and other residents: veterinarian Lawrence, opera teacher Bernard, his roommate Sadie, lawyer Randy, mother Kathy, her daughter Briana, and immigrant couple Nadif and Jwahir. The crew enters with police officers Danny and James. They are attacked by an aggressive Espinosa who bites James and Fletcher. Danny shoots her down. The team finds another resident Elise in a similar condition and brings her downstairs with the others. Those wounded by Espinosa become sick and delirious.

The authorities and CDC quarantine the building, not allowing anyone to leave. Angela interviews Briana, who states that her dog is at the vet because he was sick. Lawrence recognizes the symptoms as similar to those of rabies. Angela, Scott, Bernard and Sadie witness a rabid dog maul Randy to death. They are attacked by Elise and Scott kills her in self-defense. CDC officers wearing hazmat suits enter the building to test Fletcher and James, who awaken to attack one of the officers and Lawrence. The surviving inspector reveals that Briana's dog is the reason the CDC has quarantined the building, as it was infected. Briana succumbs and bites her mother before fleeing. The group finds Briana, who is now infected. She bites Danny, which forces the others to rush back downstairs as all the infected break loose. Kathy is killed and Nadif and Jwahir are infected by Lawrence.

The remaining group locks themselves in a room upstairs but discovers both the inspector and Sadie have been bitten. Bernard attempts to escape the building but is killed by a sniper outside. Yuri deduces that the basement, which connects to the sewers, may be the only way out. Yuri is attacked and bitten by the health inspector who has just succumbed to the infection. Wanda refuses to leave her husband behind and gets bitten by Sadie. Jake, Angela, and Scott flee.

The trio manage to find the basement key whilst overcoming most of the infected along the way. Jake is bitten and beaten to death by the infected Yuri, leaving Angela and Scott as the sole survivors. The pair are forced upstairs to the attic apartment by the infected, where they find lab equipment and newspaper clippings belonging to a former tenant, who was a member of a doomsday cult that broke into a military's biological facility and stole a biological weapon called the Armageddon Virus. The virus is a mutated form of rabies, which is highly contractable and deadly.

A trapdoor opens from the attic and Scott loses the camera light when an infected boy swats at it. Scott turns on the night vision before he and Angela hear banging noises inside the apartment. The source of the noises is an emaciated person, apparently unaware of them, blindly searching. Scott drops the camera as the figure attacks him. Angela retrieves it and sees the infected person eating Scott before she is also attacked. She drops the camera and is dragged into the darkness, screaming.

Cast

Ben Messmer, who starred in director John Erick Dowdle's previous film The Poughkeepsie Tapes , makes an appearance as firefighter Griffin.

Production

Development

In August 2007, it was announced Screen Gems had begun working on a remake of REC . [3] Duo filmmakers John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle were hired to write and direct the film, while Roy Lee, Sergio Aguero and Doug Davison are serving as producers. [3]

Unusually for a Hollywood production, Quarantine does not feature a musical score. The apartment complex was a set but a fully functioning one with four floors.

Filming

Principal photography on their film began in January 2008 and wrapped in March 2008 in Downtown, Los Angeles, California. The film was shot in chronological order and the average shot was between four and six minutes long.

Release

Quarantine was released in the United States on October 10, 2008, by Screen Gems. On its opening day, the film grossed $5,379,867, ranking #1 in the box office. [2] The film opened at #2, behind the second weekend of Beverly Hills Chihuahua , earning $14,211,321 in its opening weekend. [4] It grossed a total of $41,319,906 worldwide against a production budget of $12 million.

Home media

Quarantine was released February 17, 2009, on DVD and Blu-ray. [5]

Reception

Critical response

The film was not screened in advance for American critics. [6]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film reports an 56% of critics gave positive reviews based on 86 reviews; the average rating is 5.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads "Quarantine uses effective atmosphere and consistent scares to stand above the crop of recent horror films." [7] Metacritic reported the film had an aggregate score of 53/100 based on 14 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". [8]

Reviewing it in The New York Times , Jeannette Catsoulis praised its "solid acting and perfectly calibrated shocks". [9]

Quarantine received a 3.5/5 stars from Bloody Disgusting, which wrote, "A study in claustrophobia, expertly cast, edited and staged with expert meticulousness and precision, the film’s only major flaw is the need to explain that which never needed explaining." [10] Michael Gingold of Fangoria rated it 3/4 stars and called it "an acceptable substitute" for the original film. [11] Empire was lukewarm in its response but critical of the rushed and copied-verbatim style of the remake. [12]

Paul Nicholasi of Dread Central rated it 1.5/5 stars and called it hard to watch, both because of the shaky cam and the pacing. [13] Joe Leydon of Variety described it as "a modestly inventive, sporadically exciting thriller that nonetheless proves too faithful to its central conceit for its own good." [14]

Artistic response

Jaume Balagueró, who co-wrote and directed the REC series, expressed distaste for Quarantine by saying, "It's impossible for me to like, because it's a copy. It's the same, except for the finale. It’s impossible to enjoy Quarantine after REC. I don’t understand why they avoided the religious themes; they lost a very important part of the end of the movie." [15]

Paco Plaza stated that Quarantine "helped REC to become more popular than it was. It moved a spotlight onto our film. You know, the fact that it was going to be remade in Hollywood, it was big news in Europe. Everyone knew that it existed, this tiny Spanish film." [16]

Awards

YearAwardCategoryResult
2009 Reaper Award "Best Zombie Film" [17] Won
2009 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards 2nd place for Best Make-Up/Creature FX (Robert Hall)Won
2009 Saturn Awards Best Horror FilmNominated

Related Research Articles

<i>The Hot Zone</i> 1995 nonfiction book by Richard Preston

The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story is a best-selling 1994 nonfiction thriller by Richard Preston about the origins and incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, particularly ebolaviruses and marburgviruses. The basis of the book was Preston's 1992 New Yorker article "Crisis in the Hot Zone".

<i>The Crazies</i> (1973 film) 1973 American science fiction horror film written and directed by George A. Romero

The Crazies is a 1973 American science fiction horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. It stars Lane Carroll, Will McMillan, and Harold Wayne Jones as residents of a small American town that accidentally become afflicted by a military biological weapon. Filmed in Evans City in Western Pennsylvania, The Crazies was a box office failure upon release, but has since become a cult film. A remake of the film was released in 2010.

Perfect Creature is a 2007 New Zealand horror/thriller film, written and directed by Glenn Standring and starring Saffron Burrows and Dougray Scott, set in an alternate universe New Zealand; it premiered in New Zealand on 18 October 2007.

<i>I Am Legend</i> (film) 2007 film by Francis Lawrence

I Am Legend is a 2007 American post-apocalyptic action thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich and starring Will Smith as US Army virologist Robert Neville. Loosely based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, the film is set in New York City after a virus, which was originally created to cure cancer, has wiped out most of mankind, leaving Neville as the last human in New York, other than nocturnal mutants. Neville is immune to the virus, and he works to develop a cure while defending himself against the hostile mutants. It is the third feature-film adaptation of Matheson's novel following 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man.

<i>Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane</i> 2007 film

Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane is a 2007 direct-to-video zombie film by director Scott Thomas. Thomas co-wrote the screenplay with Mark Onspaugh and Sidney Iwanter. The film was originally titled Plane Dead, but the title was changed at Montreal's 2007 Fantasia Festival screening. In spite of a successful screening there and at other festivals, the film did not gain a commercial release and was issued directly to DVD in unrated form.

<i>Rec</i> (film) 2007 film by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza

Rec is a 2007 Spanish found footage horror film co-written and directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. The film stars Manuela Velasco as a reporter who, with her cameraman, accompany a group of firefighters on an emergency call to an apartment building to discover an infection spreading inside, with the building being sealed up and all occupants ordered to follow a strict quarantine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rabies</span> Deadly viral disease, transmitted through animals

Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia due to the symptom of panic when presented with liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and abnormal sensations at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, fear of water, an inability to move parts of the body, confusion, and loss of consciousness. Once symptoms appear, the result is virtually always death. The time period between contracting the disease and the start of symptoms is usually one to three months but can vary from less than one week to more than one year. The time depends on the distance the virus must travel along peripheral nerves to reach the central nervous system.

The prevalence of rabies, a deadly viral disease affecting mammals, varies significantly across regions worldwide, posing a persistent public health problem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rabies in animals</span> Deadly zoonotic disease

In animals, rabies is a viral zoonotic neuro-invasive disease which causes inflammation in the brain and is usually fatal. Rabies, caused by the rabies virus, primarily infects mammals. In the laboratory it has been found that birds can be infected, as well as cell cultures from birds, reptiles and insects. The brains of animals with rabies deteriorate. As a result, they tend to behave bizarrely and often aggressively, increasing the chances that they will bite another animal or a person and transmit the disease.

<i>Rec 2</i> 2009 Spanish horror film

Rec 2 is a 2009 Spanish found footage horror film sequel to 2007's Rec and the second installment of the Rec film series. The film was written and directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, both of whom returned from the previous film. The story takes place immediately after the events of the first film and follows a team of soldiers assigned to protect a scientist supposedly sent to investigate the cause of the outbreak, but who may already know more about it than he claims.

<i>The Crazies</i> (2010 film) 2010 American horror film by Breck Eisner

The Crazies is a 2010 American science fiction horror film directed by Breck Eisner from a screenplay from Scott Kosar and Ray Wright. The film is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name and stars Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson and Danielle Panabaker. George A. Romero, who wrote and directed the original, served as an executive producer. It is about a fictional Iowa town that becomes afflicted by a biological agent that turns those infected into violent killers. The film was released on February 26, 2010, and grossed $54 million on a $20 million budget. It received mixed reviews according to Metacritic, with the critical summary on Rotten Tomatoes calling the film "tense, nicely shot, and uncommonly intelligent".

<i>Rec 3: Genesis</i> 2012 film by Paco Plaza

Rec 3: Genesis is a 2012 Spanish action horror film directed and co-written by Paco Plaza. The film, which is the third installment in the Rec series, eschews the found-footage format of its predecessors as well as occurs at the same time as the first film. Rec 3: Genesis follows two newlyweds who struggle to reunite with each other after the viral zombie outbreak ruins their wedding reception and infects their families.

Rabies has been the main plot device or a significant theme in many fictional works. Due to the long history of the virus as well as its neurotropic nature, rabies has been a potent symbol of madness, irrationalism, or an unstoppable plague in numerous fictional works, in many genres. Many notable examples are listed below.

<i>Quarantine 2: Terminal</i> 2011 American horror film sequel

Quarantine 2: Terminal is a 2011 American horror film and a sequel to the 2008 film, Quarantine. It was written and directed by John Pogue and produced by Marc Brienstock. The film stars Mercedes Mason, Josh Cooke and Mattie Liptak as passengers on an airplane where the mutant rabies virus from the previous film is now spreading, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing at a terminal that is promptly surrounded by the government, trapping the passengers and crew as they search for answers and a means of escape.

<i>Rec 4: Apocalypse</i> 2014 film by Jaume Balagueró

Rec 4: Apocalypse is a 2014 Spanish action horror film, and the fourth and final installment of the Rec film series. The film is a direct sequel to Rec 2, taking place immediately after the events of the second film. Jaume Balagueró, the director of the first two installments, returns alongside actress Manuela Velasco, who reprises her role of the imperiled reporter Ángela Vidal. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2014 and screened at the 2014 Sitges Film Festival on 3 October, before being released in Spain on 31 October.

Rammbock is a 2010 German horror film directed by Marvin Kren, written by Benjamin Hessler, and starring Michael Fuith, Theo Trebs, Anka Graczyk, and Emily Cox as survivors of a rage virus in Berlin. Besides its native Germany, it was theatrically released in Austria, the UK, and the US.

<i>Patient Zero</i> (film) 2018 film by Stefan Ruzowitzky

Patient Zero is a 2018 science fiction horror film directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and written by Mike Le. The film stars Matt Smith, Natalie Dormer, John Bradley, Stanley Tucci, Agyness Deyn, and Clive Standen. The plot involves a group of survivors who set out to find an antidote for a highly contagious virus that turns the infected into a ravenous but highly intelligent new species.

<i>Rec</i> (film series) Spanish horror film franchise

Rec is a Spanish supernatural zombie horror film franchise. The original 2007 film was shot in Barcelona, Spain and the title is an abbreviation of the word "record", as it appears on a video camera.

<i>Seoul Station</i> (film) 2016 South Korean animated film

Seoul Station is a South Korean adult animated post-apocalyptic zombie horror film written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho. It is the second released installment in, and a prequel to, the Train to Busan film series. The aeni explores how the zombie epidemic began in South Korea before the latter's events.

<i>The Rezort</i> 2015 British film

The Rezort is a 2015 British zombie horror film directed by Steve Barker and written by Paul Gerstenberger. It stars Dougray Scott, Jessica De Gouw and Martin McCann. After humanity wins a devastating war against zombies, the few remaining undead are kept on a secure island, where they are hunted for sport. When something goes wrong with the island's security gates, the zombies attack the guests and the world faces the possibility of a new outbreak.

References

  1. "QUARANTINE (18)". British Board of Film Classification . August 14, 2008. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Quarantine (2008) - Daily Box Office Result". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved October 10, 2008.
  3. 1 2 "Screen Gems gets into 'Rec'". Variety. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  4. "Weekend Box Office Results from 10/10 - 10/12". Box Office Mojo. August 27, 2010. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  5. Wallis, J. Doyle (February 15, 2009). "Quarantine". DVD Talk . Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  6. "'Quarantine' delivers the heebie-jeebies dexterously". The Charlotte Observer . October 17, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  7. "Quarantine (2008)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  8. "Quarantine (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 12, 2008. Retrieved October 13, 2008.
  9. Catsoulis, Jeannette (October 11, 2008). "Infection's Bad Symptoms". The New York Times.
  10. "Quarantine (REC Remake)". Bloody Disgusting . October 13, 2008. Retrieved October 13, 2008.
  11. Gingold, Michael (October 15, 2008). "QUARANTINE (Film Review)". Fangoria . Archived from the original on February 14, 2009. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  12. "Empire Online review of Quarantine". Archived from the original on July 19, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  13. Nicolasi, Paul (October 8, 2008). "Quarantine (2008)". Dread Central . Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  14. Leydon, Joe (October 28, 2008). "Review: 'Quarantine'". Variety . Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  15. Jaume Balagueró talks “[REC] 4: APOCALYPSE” Archived November 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  16. Entertainment Weekly
  17. Dowdle Brothers Set to Direct Devil for Universal