Movie Review Quarantine

Quarantine I’m sure you’ve seen the previews. A disparate group of people are quarantined inside an apartment building after fire and police respond to a 911 call. A two-person news team is following the fire department that night and are caught inside as well. The authorities are not telling them anything, but something is killing the people inside. A scene from the trailer has already become iconic—a woman lying on the floor in front of a night vision video camera, terrified, her eyes glowing, crawling in the pitch dark. Suddenly she is being dragged back into the shadows by an unseen force, screaming as she vanishes. That scene made me go see the move, despite knowing it would be terrible. Besides, the evil thing might be Zombies, right?
Surprise! It isn’t a terrible movie. It is inventive, scary, suspenseful, violent, gory and very well written. The entire movie—every frame—is seen from the vantage point of the news camera, similar to Cloverfield but still manages to bring a different look and perspective to the movie. We know what the people trapped in the building know, which is very little, as they try to find out what is happening, why the government has locked them inside without telling them anything, and as they figure out how to survive. Slowly clues begin to emerge and connect, but we never do (which means they never do) find out exactly what is happening—other than people being killed and ripped to pieces, or shot if they try to escape.
It doesn’t have the holes most of these kinds of features are subject to, mostly because they give us so little information. But the people inside are believable, human, terrified, and behave in ways that come across as genuine, valid responses to something fundamentally beyond their experience or even imagination. It isn’t a Zombie move. It is much more sinister because it is much closer to the realm of reality.
Everyone in it does a first rate job of acting. There are no big names in it.
I recommend it if you are a true aficionado, otherwise stay away. It’s good, but it’s in-your-face violence and terror. It is rated R and deservedly so.