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The reason why you can’t completely hate
“Quarantine” is because of Jennifer Carpenter. If there’s one ace in the
hole Screen Gems has this year is the casting of the incomparable
Carpenter whose acting prowess is outweighed by her ability to scream
with the likes greats like Janet Leigh and Fay Wray. Carpenter gives a
marvelous performance here with a character portrayal of Vidal that’s
slightly more sympathetic than the one previously captured by Manuela
Velasco. Velasco’s version of Angela came off as snarky and slimy while
Carpenter’s feels more realistic and human when faced with the beady
eyed monsters that plague the complex she and her crew investigate one
night. What keeps Screen Gems’ westernization afloat: It all comes
around to Jennifer Carpenter in the end.
First and
foremost I wanted to really cast a frown on Screen Gems for not only
robbing the audience of a surprise twist in the movie but generally
having the gall to remake a potential horror classic and then just throw
the baby out with the bath water. Watching the final shot of the film
(usually left as a surprise if you’ve seen [REC]) used as a marketing
tool has been most infuriating to sit through because it’s destroyed any
and all element of tension, suspense, and guessing as to the fate of our
heroine Angela doing the work for us all in the name of grabbing that
great scene and making it a hook for publicity. It’s a shame how Screen
Gems and Hollywood in general, takes the audience for fools more often
than not. As stated by fellow contributor Lillian Patterson, the
philosophy with this remake is “more is more” and director John Erick
Dowdle works at completely outdoing everything Balaguero and co. worked
towards with a story that’s based around pure terror and a rapidly
spreading infection that causes even the closest of neighbors to point
fingers and fear one another.
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There’s even
much more of an emphasis in the relationships Angela has
with the firefighters where in the original she was more
about getting down to the story.
If you’ve never seen [REC]
before, the odds are that Dowdle’s horror film will seem
like a good time at the movies for Halloween, but as one
whose been given the opportunity, “Quarantine” not only
seems like a waste of time, but another massive spoiler. The
title to Dowdle’s version gives away not only what the
overall premise is, but what the purpose for the folks in
this apartment complex is when we first meet them. [REC] is
an implication to ambiguity. |
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Meanwhile, there’s a
reach for characterization that’s never really met as the
firefighters are all humanistic but rarely ever fleshed out to the
point where we’re supposed to care about them. The scares come more
gradually than the original’s, but when they do, Dowdle reaches for
drastic gore and grue that’s barely ever as memorable as it should
be. As a remake it’s not the worst I’ve ever seen with the material
paying homage to the source story with a twist that’s ludicrous, but
it marks the unnecessary category by a mile as a movie that could
have easily been put in to theaters a la a limited release with an
audience that would have eaten this up with a spoon.
For an audience
that’s never seen [REC] in their lives, “Quarantine” may serve to be
somewhat of a treat for a Friday night, but my suggestion is to see the
original first and then skip this one altogether. It’s a shot for shot
remake, so you won’t be missing anything but Jennifer Carpenter’s
magnificent screams, guaranteed.
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