The Blair Zombie Project

If you've been reading the MSX for any length of time, you'll know how much I enjoy going out to movie theaters. It's been right at a month since my last trip to the movies, though, so I was glad to get out and see a new movie this afternoon. The new movie in question is Quarantine, the latest in the long line of American remakes of foreign horror movies. I was especially looking forward to Quarantine, considering how much I enjoyed its source material, the Spanish zombie movie [Rec]. I absolutely loved [Rec], so I was hoping Quarantine would be able to live up to it. And my personal opinion is that it got very close.

The biggest problem I had with Quarantine is that it's pretty much a carbon copy of [Rec]. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, because [Rec] was awesome. But the reason I call that a problem is because in my eyes, it made Quarantine kinda predictable. Yes, I'm pretty sure that 99 percent of the people who have seen and will see Quarantine have no idea that it's a remake. So I'm sure they'll be able to enjoy it for what it is. But having seen the original movie, it's hard to get into it when you keep thinking, "Ooh, here comes this one scene," or "Hey, this is about to happen, I remember that." Remember how everybody got on Gus Van Sant's case because his remake of Psycho was practically identical to the original, featuring no extreme changes outside of different actors and a transition from black-and-white to color? Quarantine is pretty much the same way, featuring no extreme changes outside of different actors and a transition from Spanish dialogue to English.

But although I could see practically everything coming due to its faithfulness to [Rec], Quarantine still managed to scare me a few times. The acting is also solid, with Jay Hernandez getting an honorable mention. The ultra-shaky Blair Witch-style handheld camera deal gave me a headache, but I guess that's to be expected? Anyway, I'll give Quarantine three and a half stars on my Five-Star Sutton Scale, and a thumbs up. It isn't quite as good as [Rec], but I thought it was a fun little zombie movie.

And if every other movie on the face of the planet can get a video game, why not Quarantine? With the whole handheld camera gimmick, I think a Quarantine video game would seem a natural fit into the first-person shooter genre. If they did it like Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Quarantine: The Video Game would rule. I'd totally buy a copy of it.