Quarantine (2008)

“Quarantine” is an American re-make of a European film called “Rec.” Rules stipulate that American remakes suck compared to their original foreign counterpart. There are exceptions: “Insomnia” for instance. And this film. (I have not seen the original. But will.) The set-up is simple: A TV news crew follows a firefighter company for a routine “you are there” news assignment. Yet a simple call – a medical distress – turns ugly, then horrifying and then hellish as a zombie virus spreads inside a cruddy apartment building. The entire film is shot from the view of the news cameraman (Steve Harris, barely seen). This trick gives the viewer an off-the-cuff hell ride, although the “random” placement of the camera gets a little too planned at the film’s climax. The violence is bloody nasty without being sickly, and the actors make fantastic work out of “I’m going to die!” roles. The lingering mysteries, unsolved fates and sparse facts add to the claustrophobia. For a “Z” genre flick, this gets a B+