Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Quarantine

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 76 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
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:
Theatrical: October 10, 2008
DVD: February 17, 2009
Running Time: 89 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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...
Read Full Review >The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
The template is familiar, but Quarantine delivers the heebie-jeebies with solid acting and perfectly calibrated shocks.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
A modestly inventive, sporadically exciting thriller that nonetheless proves too faithful to its central conceit for its own good.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 76 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.
