Quarantine [chock full 'o spoilers]

shawkins · Oct 12, 2008

OK, yes, I'm sure the Spanish one was probably better.

This movie was friggin AWESOME. Best horror flick since The Descent, imo. The last 30 minutes or so were super intense. I walked out feeling like I'd just run a race. Here's some of the many ways in which I loved it:

The obligatory getting-to-meet-the-future-victims setup was actually pretty entertaining.
I thought it was a nice twist that most of the zombies weren't anonymous.
What the HELL was that thing in the attic? A baby? If so, where did it come from? Did that doomsday cult guy steal him/her or something?
Speaking of the doomsday cult, I thought that was really well executed with all the brief flashes of press clippings and whatnot.
When they came back to where the cop had shot Mrs. Espinosa (or whatever her name was) and she was gone I had a zombiegasm. Up until then I thought I was watching 28 Days Later zombies, instead of the much cooler actual dead zombies.

My only real gripe was that the bit in the previews where the chick got dragged away into the darkness more or less spoiled the last 5m for me.

ManyAk · Oct 12, 2008

This movie does not deserve to be watched by anyone on earth. I am serious. Why?

Because it's a SHOT-BY-SHOT remake of a really original movie that is even better. NO CREATIVITY AT ALL. I will not support people who make money instead of creating art. Pisses me off so much.

shawkins · Oct 12, 2008

<sniffle> Well *I* liked it.

Calla Lily · Oct 12, 2008

The creative half of my brain wants to see [Rec]. The rest of me, esp. my stomach, says: Are you out of your flippin' MIND?! It's shaky cam! You'll puke your guts up in the first 5 minutes!

Thus: Thanks for the spoilers. I've seen the "evil entity drag the vic into eternal drakness" a LOT, and that was souring me on the movie.

*sigh* I wish there'd be an alt on the DVD filmed in SteadiCam.

Jcomp · Oct 12, 2008

ManyAk said:
This movie does not deserve to be watched by anyone on earth. I am serious. Why?

Because it's a SHOT-BY-SHOT remake of a really original movie that is even better. NO CREATIVITY AT ALL. I will not support people who make money instead of creating art. Pisses me off so much.

Well, it's not "shot-by-shot" per se. They changed up some moments here & there & at least endeavored to do a couple of slightly different things.

And I've said before here, I think, but I didn't mind the idea of re-making this film. It has better production values and while I normally don't mind subtitles, they prove distracting in a horror movie, which requires more immersion to achieve the desired effect than any other genre.

That said, having seen REC twice and Quarantine once, the whole "live-film" gimmick is wearing mighty thin. This movie has a solid concept that just doesn't get a chance to really play out all that well due to the constraints of the way it is presented.

Calla Lily · Oct 12, 2008

I usually agree, Jcomp. But I have to say that the first time I saw Ringu, the subtitles didn't keep me from leaping out of my chair and saying a very bad word at that one certain point near the end.

*grumbles at the utter lack of availability of [Rec]* If I saw it at home, I could look away or pause it a lot, like I did with Blair Witch.

Jcomp · Oct 12, 2008

callalily61 said:
I usually agree, Jcomp. But I have to say that the first time I saw Ringu, the subtitles didn't keep me from leaping out of my chair and saying a very bad word at that one certain point near the end.

*grumbles at the utter lack of availability of [Rec]* If I saw it at home, I could look away or pause it a lot, like I did with Blair Witch.

I've had a few foreign horror flicks really get under my skin even with the subtitles. I was actually pretty obsessed with J-Horror for a while there. Ringu got to me, as did A Tale of Two Sisters and Dark Water up until a certain moment during the climax (again... production-values-failure).

I never got a chance to see any of those in a theater though, where I think the immersion is challenged even more than in the comfort of your own home, due to the guy snacking next to you, the woman screaming her lungs out behind you, etc....

ManyAk · Oct 12, 2008

Jcomp said:
Well, it's not "shot-by-shot" per se. They changed up some moments here & there & at least endeavored to do a couple of slightly different things.

And I've said before here, I think, but I didn't mind the idea of re-making this film. It has better production values and while I normally don't mind subtitles, they prove distracting in a horror movie, which requires more immersion to achieve the desired effect than any other genre.

That said, having seen REC twice and Quarantine once, the whole "live-film" gimmick is wearing mighty thin. This movie has a solid concept that just doesn't get a chance to really play out all that well due to the constraints of the way it is presented.

What you say makes sense, but to me, the whole Quarantine remake sounds like a bunch of Americans finding this popular and good foreign film, decide to remake it shot-by-shot, have a more popular actress as main actress so they make even more money, and make money. That's not filmmaking, that's bullshit, there should be laws against that.

I hate that.

shawkins · Oct 12, 2008

ManyAk said:
This movie does not deserve to be watched by anyone on earth. I am serious. Why?

I just watched [Rec] on youtube and the lighting was much better in Quarantine.

ManyAk said:
Because it's a SHOT-BY-SHOT remake of a really original movie that is even better. NO CREATIVITY AT ALL. I will not support people who make money instead of creating art. Pisses me off so much.

~~Ha! You are exactly wrong, random internet person.~~ I beg to differ. The closing sequence in [REC] leaned much more towards a supernatural/spiritual worldview than did the closing sequence in Quarantine. This, imo, illustrates the deep schism between the predominantly Catholic worldview still prevalent in Spain and the postmodern disregard for spiritual affectations that U.S. audiences find palatable, and changes the entire tenor of the movie.

While many of the ... oh, never mind[sup]1[/sup]

[sup]1[/sup] I think I've spent too much time in P&CE. Both versions are hellacool.

Jcomp · Oct 12, 2008

ManyAk said:
What you say makes sense, but to me, the whole Quarantine remake sounds like a bunch of Americans finding this popular and good foreign film, decide to remake it shot-by-shot, have a more popular actress as main actress so they make even more money, and make money. That's not filmmaking, that's bullshit, there should be laws against that.

I hate that.

I hate it in those instances too, but here I really don't think it applies. Specifically, to the point of the more popular actress, that might be technically correct as nobody in America would know the Spanish actress at all, but the actress in Quarantine is hardly popular. She's not the reason anyone is attending this movie. I'm a pretty serious film fan and I don't even know her name off the top of my head. I just remember her from The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which came out a few years back and has no impact on whether or not I'd see anything she's in again in the future. I guarantee you the average American film-goer knows even less about her...

nighttimer · Oct 12, 2008

Has anyone here seen the French horror film, Inside? I've read a lot about it but I think I might be too much of a wimp to actually watch it.

The last French horror film I saw was High Tension and after a good begininng it turned into unbelievable b.s.

Jcomp · Oct 12, 2008

nighttimer said:
Has anyone here seen the French horror film, Inside? I've read a lot about it but I think I might be too much of a wimp to actually watch it.

The last French horror film I saw was High Tension and after a good begininng it turned into unbelievable b.s.

The ending to High Tension pissed me off to no end.

I've yet to see Inside. I've heard it's quite brutal, but the people who I know that really loved it... I don't much trust their opinion on horror movies, so I'm not in much of a hurry to see it. Nor am I all that eager to see Frontiers.

nighttimer · Oct 12, 2008

Yeah, I'm not into sadism for kicks. I like a good scare, but it seems too much of what passes for horror treats torture, suffering and graphic gross-outs as good clean fun. That's what keeps me away from the Hostel and Saw flicks.

Maybe I should stick with something like the 28 Days and 28 Weeks Later flicks. I've also heard The Descent is intense and frightening, but well made.

Calla Lily · Oct 13, 2008

28 Days Later was excellent. A new twist on the good ol' zombie movie. I didn't watch 28 Weeks Later because the preview prominietly featured a cute 12yo. No thanks no way no how. I do NOT watch horror with kids.

I also agree 100% with the current trend of sadism/torture=horror. Um... no, that'd be sadism/torture=sadism/torture. One of the first (I think) in this subgenre was Feardotcom. I watched it because I really like Stephen Dorff, but OMG OMG it was practically a snuff film. Made me sick to my stomach. Now I'm VERY particular in the movies I choose.

ETA: shawkins, YouTube has [Rec]? The whole thing in pieces or just a trailer?

seun · Oct 13, 2008

Boo hiss to all remakes. [Rec] is the one to watch.

shawkins · Oct 13, 2008

callalily61 said:
ETA: shawkins, YouTube has [Rec]? The whole thing in pieces or just a trailer?

The whole thing in pieces. Look for "[REC] English Subtitles"

nighttimer; said:
I've also heard The Descent is intense and frightening, but well made.

Yeah, that's another top notch movie.

Calla Lily · Oct 13, 2008

shawkins said:
The whole thing in pieces. Look for "[REC] English Subtitles"

w00t! Another distraction from my WIP.

ManyAk · Oct 13, 2008

nighttimer said:
Has anyone here seen the French horror film, Inside? I've read a lot about it but I think I might be too much of a wimp to actually watch it.

The last French horror film I saw was High Tension and after a good begininng it turned into unbelievable b.s.

Inside is one of the best horror movies of the past 10 years, in my humble opinion. It absolutely deserves to be watched, you won't be disappointed.

And I really liked the ending of High Tension, turned it into something more than just another slasher flick.

ManyAk · Oct 13, 2008

shawkins said:
I just watched [Rec] on youtube and the lighting was much better in Quarantine.[/sup]

See, I don't think it's a question of who had better lighting, but who had a bigger budget.

Calla Lily · Oct 13, 2008

*preapares to duck and run*

Anyone see the original Jeepers Creepers ? For the first 45 minutes it was original and different and interesting and I was fascinated. Then it had the standard scenes: no one believes them, the cops dismiss them, the weird psychic lady prophesies doom yada yada.

So about [Rec]. For the first half, maybe (the YouTube segments are about 10 mins each) it was cute and semi-interesting, and I was more than willing to go along because you can just tell something Very Bad is coming.

And then... meh. Zombies eat people, the uninfected fight among themselves, secretive authorities do secretive things. :bummed: I hate being all excited about a cool horror movie and ending up disappointed. Blair Witch did it with less gore. The original Night of the Living Dead did it infinitely better.

I liked how they Haz-Matted the building, and how the cell phones worked at first, then didn't, and the escalating creepiness of the people outside lying to everyone about how "we're the authorities and we're here to help". I liked the possessed critter puttering around the apartment kitchen--good use of low light and small shutter opening.

So, how does Quarantine end, if they don't use the possessed kid angle?

shawkins · Oct 14, 2008

callalily61 said:
So, how does Quarantine end, if they don't use the possessed kid angle?

The ending was basically the same, but the press clippings on the walls were different. Also, no tape narration.

The guy in the penthouse was a doomsday cultist, not a vatican researcher or whatever. The possessed kid may have shown up briefly in the attic, but the one responsible for it all was some sort of cultist who had a lab in the penthouse wherein he cooked zombie juice out of stuff he stole from weapons labs.

Bmwhtly · Oct 15, 2008

shawkins said:
had a lab in the penthouse wherein he cooked zombie juice out of stuff he stole from weapons labs.

I think I'll stick with [Rec]

seun · Oct 15, 2008

Bmwhtly said:
I think I'll stick with [Rec]

Wise words, my friend.

Quarantine [chock full 'o spoilers]

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

ManyAk

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

Calla Lily

On hiatus

Jcomp

Calla Lily

On hiatus

Jcomp

ManyAk

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

Jcomp

nighttimer

Am I Evil? Yes, I Am!

Jcomp

nighttimer

Am I Evil? Yes, I Am!

Calla Lily

On hiatus

seun

Horror Man

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

Calla Lily

On hiatus

ManyAk

ManyAk

Calla Lily

On hiatus

shawkins

Ahhh. Sweet.

Bmwhtly

Yes, I'm back.

seun

Horror Man