A FILM REVIEW
QUARANTINE
by Malik Isasis
Horror films are allegories about humanity’s inevitable fear of losing control. We believe that we are in control because we have effectively extricated ourselves from the natural order of things. We no longer see ourselves as being a part of an eco system, restrained by nature. We overcame the limit of light that nature provided by discovering fire; we overcame her harsh weather by inventing clothing and building protective huts; we overcame feast or famine by domesticating other animals for food year round; we overcame nature’s vast oceans by building boats and migrating beyond our boundaries of inception.
These accomplishments are a testament to our ancestors. It was their success that gave us the leisure of thinking about why we are here. It was then, when we no longer had to hunt and gather that we had time to pursue knowledge full time. It was in this transition we began pulling ourselves out of the animal world and began seeing ourselves as Gods. Our ancestors tended to see nature as God, but as knowledge increased, that God became us.
When something spectacularly awful happens, like September 11th, or New Orleans, or any natural or manmade disaster, the illusion of control is peeled back, revealing the fantasy. The reality is that we completely lose control. Let the world stock markets be my witness to this fact.
Great horror films are able to tap into our hardwired brain that was past down from our great ancestors who believed in no such illusion because they were exposed not only to the elements, but also to beasts of prey.
Quarantine is the story of a reporter; Angela (the uniquely attractive Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman, Scott, Steve Harris (from the syndicated television show The Practice) are in production of their show “The Nightshift” where they follow night workers. On this particular night, they are shadowing firemen. There are interesting history lessons and facts given by the firemen to Angela and Scott on the running of a fire station.
As with most scary films there is only a matter of time before it all falls apart and that time comes about fifteen or so minutes into the film when the fire fighters answer a 911 call.
The story told from a first person point of view, like Blair Witch Project, or Cloverfield only enhances the credence to the fear factor. The fire truck speeds down the streets with its lights shining creepily down dark, and curiously empty arterials in Los Angeles.
Upon arriving at the building the superintendent meets the firemen out and tells them of a tenant, an elderly lady who had been screaming something terrible. Angela and Scott disembark from the fire truck and into the apartment building behind the firemen.
The elderly lady is covered in blood, and foaming at the mouth. She stands in the shadows rocking back and forth. Menacing, yet a policeman along with two firemen approach the woman, only to have a chunk of one of their necks bitten off.
The production design is top notch with muted greens and browns. The apartment has claustrophobia inducing, long narrow-corridors. The art deco-ish building, is elegantly rundown with dimly lit vestibules, apartment units and hallways.
From the moment Angela and Scott enter the building with their camera, the movie becomes frenetic and chaotic as an unexplained virus slowly infects tenants, turning them into ravaging zombie-vampire-like creatures with red eyes, and pale skin. And per movie law #123, each character is picked off, one by one.
The Center for Disease Control and paramilitary almost immediately come in and isolate the apartment building by locking it down. The tenants, and first response team along with our protagonist are stuck in the building with festering post humans and very few places to run. The government are more scarier than the zombies, for anyone who tries to escape are plucked in the head by a sharpshooter. They are eventually vacuumed sealed into the building until the government can figure out the infection.
One guy in the audience in exacerbation said, "I'd just cut my wrist. Fuck it," to which the audience laughed. The theatre was packed to capacity, and then some. The audience was afraid because they laughed excessively.
Quarantine stayed with me for several hours. I started reading on the film origins and not surprisingly, discovered that it was a remake of a Spanish film that achieved cult status only a year and half ago. The Spanish version was called [REC] pronounced wreck, as in recording.
The Spanish version of the film is not available for rent or purchase stateside; it did not open theatrically here either. I became a little obsessive and searched for several days for the original source material to compare the versions. Finally, with a little ingenuity, I got a hold of the Spanish version of the film. Quarantine stayed pretty faithful to the original. I actually found the American version scarier.
We are one natural or manmade disaster away from humanity totaling collapsing. I’m talking about melting polar ice caps causing worldwide floods, or nuclear fallout spurred on by unimaginative politicians. I’m not just being hyperbolic. When Hurricane Katrina swept in and burst the levees in New Orleans, the wealthy left the poor behind, the white people left the black people behind; the abled left the disabled behind, the young left the old behind.
This is humanity.
Our self-preservation mirrors that of other animals; the Gazelles and Wildebeests on the African plain for instance, leaving behind their weak, the old and the young when a clan of Lionesses is running in formation for breakfast.
Horror films are able to reflect who we become when face with the loss of control.
Quarantine is one of the top five scariest films I’ve seen, and possibly one of the best movies of the year. There will be competition in two weeks when another little horror film, Let the Right One In, hit the shores from Sweden, but until then. This film gets an A.
GRADE: A
By the way, I double dare you to look at five minutes of the original.
QUARANTINE
by Malik Isasis
Horror films are allegories about humanity’s inevitable fear of losing control. We believe that we are in control because we have effectively extricated ourselves from the natural order of things. We no longer see ourselves as being a part of an eco system, restrained by nature. We overcame the limit of light that nature provided by discovering fire; we overcame her harsh weather by inventing clothing and building protective huts; we overcame feast or famine by domesticating other animals for food year round; we overcame nature’s vast oceans by building boats and migrating beyond our boundaries of inception.
These accomplishments are a testament to our ancestors. It was their success that gave us the leisure of thinking about why we are here. It was then, when we no longer had to hunt and gather that we had time to pursue knowledge full time. It was in this transition we began pulling ourselves out of the animal world and began seeing ourselves as Gods. Our ancestors tended to see nature as God, but as knowledge increased, that God became us.
When something spectacularly awful happens, like September 11th, or New Orleans, or any natural or manmade disaster, the illusion of control is peeled back, revealing the fantasy. The reality is that we completely lose control. Let the world stock markets be my witness to this fact.
Great horror films are able to tap into our hardwired brain that was past down from our great ancestors who believed in no such illusion because they were exposed not only to the elements, but also to beasts of prey.
Quarantine is the story of a reporter; Angela (the uniquely attractive Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman, Scott, Steve Harris (from the syndicated television show The Practice) are in production of their show “The Nightshift” where they follow night workers. On this particular night, they are shadowing firemen. There are interesting history lessons and facts given by the firemen to Angela and Scott on the running of a fire station.
As with most scary films there is only a matter of time before it all falls apart and that time comes about fifteen or so minutes into the film when the fire fighters answer a 911 call.
The story told from a first person point of view, like Blair Witch Project, or Cloverfield only enhances the credence to the fear factor. The fire truck speeds down the streets with its lights shining creepily down dark, and curiously empty arterials in Los Angeles.
Upon arriving at the building the superintendent meets the firemen out and tells them of a tenant, an elderly lady who had been screaming something terrible. Angela and Scott disembark from the fire truck and into the apartment building behind the firemen.
The elderly lady is covered in blood, and foaming at the mouth. She stands in the shadows rocking back and forth. Menacing, yet a policeman along with two firemen approach the woman, only to have a chunk of one of their necks bitten off.
The production design is top notch with muted greens and browns. The apartment has claustrophobia inducing, long narrow-corridors. The art deco-ish building, is elegantly rundown with dimly lit vestibules, apartment units and hallways.
From the moment Angela and Scott enter the building with their camera, the movie becomes frenetic and chaotic as an unexplained virus slowly infects tenants, turning them into ravaging zombie-vampire-like creatures with red eyes, and pale skin. And per movie law #123, each character is picked off, one by one.
The Center for Disease Control and paramilitary almost immediately come in and isolate the apartment building by locking it down. The tenants, and first response team along with our protagonist are stuck in the building with festering post humans and very few places to run. The government are more scarier than the zombies, for anyone who tries to escape are plucked in the head by a sharpshooter. They are eventually vacuumed sealed into the building until the government can figure out the infection.
One guy in the audience in exacerbation said, "I'd just cut my wrist. Fuck it," to which the audience laughed. The theatre was packed to capacity, and then some. The audience was afraid because they laughed excessively.
Quarantine stayed with me for several hours. I started reading on the film origins and not surprisingly, discovered that it was a remake of a Spanish film that achieved cult status only a year and half ago. The Spanish version was called [REC] pronounced wreck, as in recording.
The Spanish version of the film is not available for rent or purchase stateside; it did not open theatrically here either. I became a little obsessive and searched for several days for the original source material to compare the versions. Finally, with a little ingenuity, I got a hold of the Spanish version of the film. Quarantine stayed pretty faithful to the original. I actually found the American version scarier.
We are one natural or manmade disaster away from humanity totaling collapsing. I’m talking about melting polar ice caps causing worldwide floods, or nuclear fallout spurred on by unimaginative politicians. I’m not just being hyperbolic. When Hurricane Katrina swept in and burst the levees in New Orleans, the wealthy left the poor behind, the white people left the black people behind; the abled left the disabled behind, the young left the old behind.
This is humanity.
Our self-preservation mirrors that of other animals; the Gazelles and Wildebeests on the African plain for instance, leaving behind their weak, the old and the young when a clan of Lionesses is running in formation for breakfast.
Horror films are able to reflect who we become when face with the loss of control.
Quarantine is one of the top five scariest films I’ve seen, and possibly one of the best movies of the year. There will be competition in two weeks when another little horror film, Let the Right One In, hit the shores from Sweden, but until then. This film gets an A.
GRADE: A
By the way, I double dare you to look at five minutes of the original.
posted by Malik Isasis at
6:17 PM
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