Ok, so Professor Schaff isn't the ugliest date I ever had. The two of us, being fans of the zombie genre (which almost rhymes, oddly), took in Quarantine tonight. I think both of us gave it a general thumbs up, with some reservations.
Quarantine is a American version of Spanish horror film, [REC]. Judging from the Wikipedia entry on the latter, the American version is a very faithful adaptation. It is the fourth horror film in recent years (that I can think of) that confines itself to the view of a single camera, held by one of the characters. It must be irresistible to directors, but it presents obvious challenges to the audience. Looking at the world from a shaky camera can quickly get annoying, and it's hard to believe that someone would really hang onto a camera anyway, let alone keep filming, when he or she is being chased by zombies, a giant bald lizard thing, or the Blair Witch. In this case, a film crew is shadowing a group of fire fighters, and arrives on a medical emergency that turns out to be very bad.
SPOILER ALERT!
Quarantine is a pseudo zombie film. The Zombies aren't reanimated corpses, but living people infected with something that is akin to rabies. It follows in the footsteps of 28 Days Later, but is at least a hair more plausible. The infection is rapid, but not immediate, as in that earlier film. The connection with rabies is good, as rabies is the closest thing in the real world to a zombie infection.
One odd aspect of the film is that is seems to be trying to create political paranoia, but the attempt backfires. The characters are quarantined in an apartment building, surrounded by sharp shooters and guys in hazmat suits. I found that very comforting actually. When the real zombies show up, I hope our response time is half that short.
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