Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Quarantine
Screen Gems (Sony)


5.8

based on 14 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 73 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for bloody violent and disturbing content, terror and language

Starring Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez, Columbus Short, Greg Germann, Steve Harris, Dania Ramirez, Rade Sherbedgia, and Jonathon Schaech

Television reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman (Steve Harris) are assigned to spend the night shift with a Los Angeles Fire Station. After a routine 911 call takes them to a small apartment building, they find police officers already on the scene in response to blood curdling screams coming from one of the apartment units. They soon learn that a woman living in the building has been infected by something unknown. After a few of the residents are viciously attacked, they try to escape with the news crew in tow, only to find that the CDC has quarantined the building. Phones, internet, televisions and cell phone access have been cut-off, and officials are not relaying information to those locked inside. When the quarantine is finally lifted, the only evidence of what took place is the news crew’s videotape. (Sony Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Horror \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Paco Plaza (motion picture "Rec") Luis Berdejo (motion picture "Rec"), Jaume Balagueró (motion picture "Rec") Drew Dowdle John Erick Dowdle
DIRECTED BY:	John Erick Dowdle
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 17, 2009 Theatrical: October 10, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	89 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Clark Collis

Quarantine director John Erick Dowdle and co-writing brother Drew wisely stick close to the told-from-the-cameraman's point-of-view template of the terrific original, though they add a few fine flourishes.

TV Guide Jeremy Wheeler

Claustrophobic, jittery at times, and electric in pace, Quarantine is a stripped-down bloody thrill ride that -- while certainly not catering to everyone's tastes -- should satisfy gore-hounds looking to step up their theatrical horror cuisine beyond the usual creepy little kid rehashes.

LA Weekly Jim Ridley

It's a shame that this English-language cover of an excellent Spanish shocker will eclipse the original, at least in U.S. theaters -- but even those who despise remakes will have to admit that director John Erick Dowdle's furious retread is scary as hell.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Give Quarantine credit: Without resorting to computer-generated monsters or supernatural explanations, it uses consistent logic and confinement to find new ways of being scary.

Film Threat Scott Mendelson

Worth seeing for its solid first two acts, some terrific acting by some favorite character actors, and a several solid spook-show scares.

Empire Simon Crook

As a visceral, camera-shuddery ride into foamy-mouthed zombie hell, it’s efficient enough -- but if you’ve already seen [Rec], steer clear...

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

The template is familiar, but Quarantine delivers the heebie-jeebies with solid acting and perfectly calibrated shocks.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Dowdle manages a few nice shocks and some neat moments of pitch-black gallows humor, but Quarantine nevertheless feels awfully familiar, and it grows less convincing with each passing moment. At its worst, it abandons realism entirely and flirts with gory kitsch.

Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona

Shame as well upon the advance marketing department for blowing the end of the movie in ads, thus exorcising any ghost of a chance Quarantine had of issuing a surprise.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It's easily the weakest entry into this ever-expanding category and is inferior to its subtitled source material. Quarantine implies "stay away" and that's not bad advice.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Oh, "Blair Witch," what hath thou wrought? It has taken less than a decade, but the concept of horror films filmed documentary-style has officially become a tiresome cliche.

Variety Joe Leydon

A modestly inventive, sporadically exciting thriller that nonetheless proves too faithful to its central conceit for its own good.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Quarantine is a one-note nightmare, nicely pitched to the high-C howls of the bitten and the biters but offering considerably less froth than last year's "The Signal," which mined similar nightmares with far more fulsome results.

Boston Globe Michael Hardy

Like "Blair Witch," Quarantine uses the conceit of a movie-within-a-movie to give documentary immediacy to its assorted grotesqueries.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 73 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Joe S gave it a5:
A disappointment. It was definitely a much better movie than Blair Witch but not nearly as good as Cloverfield, Quarantine felt like a cross between a SciFi original and someone's crappy video of their walk through a Halloween Haunted House. I was hoping for something that felt a little more... realistic. The characters behaved in very unnatural ways at times in some attempt to generate scares that only managed to take me "out of the moment." If you wanna see a mockumentary, watch Cloverfield instead.

[Anonymous] gave it a3:
these characters never shut up. there is constant banter and bickering. there is a shaky camera (yes, i get the "style" and "reason") and towards the end the light constantly flickers on and off, in which it took some aspirin to cure my aching head. without the foaming of the mouth and slower infection time these are DANNY BOYLE zombies. what a rip off. if you gotta see zombies, see 28 days later.

C J gave it a9:
Watched this on my own and in the dark and enjoyed it immensely. Jennifer Carpenter's acting was some of the best I've ever seen. This movie plays on atmosphere and tension, the way a good horror movie should. If you're into the boring, teen slasher-style films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or "torture porn" masquerading as horror like Hostel, then this film is probably not geared towards your interests. If you're a fan of classic paranoia horror like the The Thing, you'll enjoy this as much as I did.

Deceticon Pom gave it a0:
So bad, I plugged in my headphones and watched episodes of Arrested Development on my iPhone in the cinema whilst my partner carried on watching...before declaring "I wish you'd had a second headphone jack!"

Ryan S gave it a5:
Another Blair Witch clone. Has a few creepy moments. A slightly different take on zombies.

Lorena De La Rosa gave it a10:
Fantastic, this kind of movie always makes you wonder, and think. . ., this could be happening alredy. Can you imagine, a loony making powerful virus, and everybody knows that these loonys exists, and they are working at this moment in this poisons . . . well, thats it, and the main caracter, she was wonderful, bye.

William B gave it a0:
WORST MOVIE EVER. It was one of those movies where you feel like it will get better and then it doesn't. Watching this movie seemed like more work than fun and I wound up just fast fowarding through most of the movie. Including the first twenty minutes which already set the stage for a snooze fest as the main charcter did nothing more than talk to fire fighters.

Quarantine Screen Gems (Sony)

Quarantine
Screen Gems (Sony)