Since the surprise success of The Blair Witch Project back in 1999, there's been an influx of various POV horror and sci-fi films made to look like they're real life footage taken from the cameras of the unfortunate beings stuck in various situations. There have been some really awful ones like St. Francisville Experiment, good ones like The Last Broadcast (which a lot of people say Blair Witch owes credit to), and super effective ones like this years Cloverfield. However, I'm willing to bet good money that none of these are as outright scary and gruelling as Quarantine.

An American remake of a 2007 Spanish film entitled [Rec], this marks the big studio debut for the writing-directing siblings Drew and John Erick Dowdle. Horror fans will recognize their names for making the much-delayed and controversial serial killer/snuff flick, The Poughkeepsie Tapes. I can only hope that, upon its (apparent) release in 2009 that it's just as effective, relentless, and outright shocking as what is on display here.

Everything starts out normally and is established to be footage a cameraman is filming for the local news where a plucky young reporter, Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter), has agreed to spend an evening with the Los Angeles fire department for a special interest segment of the show. She spends the first part of the night milling around the station filming footage of their living quarters, meeting with the fire fighters, and finding out that things aren't the big ball of excitement she expected it to be. But that's soon to change.

Luckily, or (as we find out) unluckily, for Angela they end-up being sent out on a call to a nearby apartment complex. It seems like a routine call for assistance where the superintendent has heard screams coming from the apartment of one of the older ladies in the building. Along with a few policemen and our camera crew, the firemen enter into her apartment and find her standing in the living room incoherent and bleeding. Attempts to calm her go awry and she viciously, and animalistically, attacks them leading to one policemen being bitten in the neck.

Attempts to get help are for naught when it turns out they've been locked into the building and quarantined without warning. All doors are locked, windows are covered, and Military personnel are positioned by all exits. It's obvious there's something in the building they don't want getting out and it gets worse when they're trapped and a rapidly spreading strain of rabies is taking over those stranded inside turning them into feral zombie-like creatures.

Quarantine is an intense time. This is not the kind of movie you're going to come out of praising how entertaining it is. The Dowdle brothers don't want you to be entertained, they want your asses firmly planted at the edge of the seat and, I'm happy to report, they manage to do just that. Using the 'behind the camera' method only heightens the suspense, as you never know when things are going to jolt into the frame or what the next corner brings, moments of relative silence are punctuated with diseased residents pouncing out of the dark. It's especially true during the final third where almost everyone has been turned and the hopes for escape seem dim. Things are so dark and malevolent, and they continually assault us with attack scenes, that when the finale comes along we're exhausted.

This is not a horror film for the lightweights or people who enjoy watching one every Halloween. It's an unforgiving and bleak effort with enough outright brutal violence on display to send most viewers packing. The realism brought by the POV shots works well and the cast is pretty convincing with Carpenter fine and Jay Hernandez (Hostel) making a serviceable hero-type. Even though I do have some minor quibbles about Quarantine due to a few silly plot points and a half-assed attempt in the finale to make things the work of a cult (this is never given much play and feels tacked on), I spent most of my time in the theatre impressed by how well they pulled it all off. This is not a pleasant movie, the makers understand what it takes to unsettle you, and just when you think you can take a breather it pummels you with another kidney shot - in other words, it's what genre films should be. (Chris Hartley, 10/11/08)

Directed By: John Erick Dowdle.
Written By: John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle.

Starring: Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Jay Hernandez, Johnathon Schaech.