The chances are if you have similar tastes to mine you will have heard of the Spanish alt-zombie, shaky-cam, found footage, horror flick [REC] - well, Quarantine is the American remake for those who don't do subtitles.
While not a shot-for-shot remake, Quarantine is very, very similar to the original - even down to the look of the quarantined apartment building.
The lovely Jennifer Carpenter, from Dexter, replaces the elfin Manuela Velasco, as the TV journalist doing a "ride-along" piece with the Los Angeles fire brigade when they are called to a block where an elderly resident is apparently in trouble in her room.
When the police and fire brigade force their way in, the crazy old woman attacks them and things very rapidly go to Hell in an oversized handbasket.
The reporter, and her mostly-unseen cameraman, find themselves trapped inside the building with an assortment of residents - including Alan Harper's wife from Two And A Half Men (Marin Hinkle), the burnt guy from American Horror Story (Denis O'Hare) and Fish from Ally McBeal (Greg Germann) - some of whom are manifesting signs of a kind of super-rabies!
Quarantine, while sticking close to the visceral template established in [REC], appears to be playing down the supernatural left turn in the third act, yet remains uncertain as to which way it wants to take things as it heads towards the now infamous final shot (which is also, rather bizarrely, the DVD cover) that was so effective in [REC] that it has has become a cliché in lazy horror movie making.
So, yes, Quarantine is excellent fun, but mainly because [REC] was so good in the first place. I guess the makers of Quarantine should, at least, be applauded for not screwing up the material they were handed - which makes a change!
Both films, ultimately, are so similar that it really comes down to the mood you are in when choosing which to watch - Spanish or American?
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