The found footage horror remake is a tense zombie experience

The author Jonathan Klotz
| Published 26 seconds ago

At the height of the found-footage craze, low-budget horror films could use the technique to tell innovative stories such as Paranormal activity or cloverfield, or take a classic horror story and make it new. 2008 Quarantine uses found footage through the eyes of a news crew to put you in the middle of a zombie outbreak, making the old-school survival story feel different by just changing the perspective. Found footage isn't a popular format these days, and it's debatable how well films from the era have aged, but some are worth watching today, including RECa Spanish-language film adapted by Hollywood into Quarantine.

There is nowhere to run

Quarantine begins with reporter Angela's newsgroup (Jennifer Carpenter), and Scott, a cameraman (Steve Harris), who follows firefighters as they respond to a call to an apartment building that looks suspiciously like a rabies infestation. An old woman infected with a mysterious virus attacks the group, which now includes a pair of police officers, before being shot down. Soon we see the exits from the building, including all the windows, which the CDC seals up in a first-person perspective, turning the plastic wrap into a gruesome death sentence.

The ranks of the infected begin to widen as there is nowhere to escape, resulting in the majority Quarantine jump scares and most of them kill the number. While trying to escape the building, a sniper takes out an occupant, forcing the survivors to try and find their way out, which is a bit tricky. The end result takes away from the horror of the film by revealing too much about the origins of the infection in a textbook example of why it's better to leave the audience wanting more.

A Relic of a Bygone Era

It is impossible to talk about it Quarantine not to mention the original movie RECone of the most successful Spanish horror films of all time. Darker and better paced than the English remake, the original is still considered one of the best found footage films of all time. It continued in three more sequels, unfolding into a complex mythology that culminated in a Vatican conspiracy.

Quarantineon the other hand, there was one sequel, Quarantine 2: Terminal, which is set on the plane before extinction. While the original is superior, even the Hollywood remake is better than most low-budget found-footage horror films of the era, despite the weak plot and stumbling third act. The film grossed $41 million in theaters, making it a success considering its low production budget.

Found footage films are few and far between these days, especially with the diminishing returns of the Paranormal Activity franchise turning films like Quarantine about relics of a bygone era in pop culture. It is also an example of when Hollywood felt the need to remake foreign films such as Ring or Grudgecompared to today when movies like Train to Busan hitting is allowed streaming. Zombie movies have been around for over 60 years, beginning with the greatness of science fiction Day of the Triffidsand it takes a lot to stand out, but a first-person burst with nowhere to run is definitely something else.

Quarantine is available Video on Demand via YouTube, Amazon Prime Videoand Apple TV.