QUARANTINE

There are zombies -- and they have apartments! Well, not exactly, but the movie Quarantine (a remake of Spanish horror film [Rec] ) sets its action in a sealed apartment complex.

Reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman Scott (Steve Harris) are shooting a late-night feature on a local firehouse in Los Angeles. After pretty routine interviews with firefighters and their usual calls, a 911 call sends the reporters and firefighters to an apartment building where a tenant has been screaming. The firefighters, two police officers, and Angela and Scott investigate, and the old lady soon tears into the firefighters. Whatever affected (infected?) the old lady is passed by bites, and anyone bitten becomes mindless, full of rage, incredibly strong and fast, and cannibalistic. That's only the start of the problems.

Wisely, the firefighters call for assistance. What they get, however, is quarantined in the building: All entrances are barricaded and sealed, communications are cut, and snipers are more that ready to take down anyone trying to leave.

Alas, this is a pretty superficial horror movie. We don't learn much about any of the characters, and they can be reduced to one-sentence archetypes rather than people whose survival matters to us. Shooting the whole movie from the first-person perspective of the video camera is sometimes suspenseful (as when the camera is the sole source of light), but nothing is done creatively with the concept. And by the end the movie becomes a series of attacks, screams, and chases. Quarantine isn't a bad movie, but nor is it an impressive or creative one -- just more zombies chasing folks.

Overall grade: C

Reviewed by James Lynch