Friday 12 December 2008

Quarantined

Dexter's sister gets a movie all of her own! Might make for an interesting one-off Cthulhu-style mod (think about that far too much), some interesting examples of getting some insanities due to much san loss... But, enough of that, and on to yet another American remake of a foreign film, this one Rec.

Basic plot: people get trapped somewhere and then taken out one-by-one, crossed with a zombie variant movie for much death. The conceit of this being that the movie is all shot through one camera. Like Cloverfield, it makes for some nauseating moments (not very many), some admittedly brilliantly done in-screen special effects, and an amazing example of technology in that the camera has a battery that lasts for many, many hours...

The effects are well done, with blood spurts and body parts being defiled in all manner of ways (and a very in-your-face death). Undoubtedly some cgi-fixed up pieces, but still impressive considering that they are presented as part of one-shot sequences (as far as we can tell, could be many edits in there, film effects are very well composited these days). But some how I doubt that the Scott character was indeed holding the camera all the time.

So the main star is Jennifer Carpenter. She starts out well, fun strong character, but ends up screaming a lot. A whole lot. Pretty much nothing but screaming. Although, to be fair, most of the other characters end up screaming as well. Or growling. It's not exactly stretching performances here. There are other recognisable faces in this as well, but no-one really outstanding.

Ultimately, however, the entire movie is undercut by the trailer, which spoils everything if you have the slightest memory of 'dramatic moments'. Certainly I knew of some scenes up coming which took away a lot of power to scare. And then the movie ends. Just ends. Huh...

[END]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm interested in seeing Quarantine, as I loved [REC]. I am well aware, though, that any shock value will be lost given that I've seen the latter - I understand they copy it almost shot for shot. Blair Witch is always brought up with these cam-corder movies, usually as an insult. It's not to me, as BW was one of the best horror movies of the 1990s. Given the competition, though, that wouldn't be hard. I think the main problem is that zombie flicks really have nowhere to go and nothing to do. Which is why most of them have crap endings. I'll say this much - even without seeing it, I know Quarantine is better than Diary Of The Dead. Romero's delivered two Duds Of The Dead in a row...what happened, G?