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Quarantine

EMAILPRINTScreen Gems (Sony)

Quarantine reviews
53
5.9 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 76 votes
Read user comments
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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)

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...

83

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.

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75

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.

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70

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.

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63

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.

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60

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.

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60

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...

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60

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

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

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58

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.

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50

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.

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50

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.

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50

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.

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50

Variety Joe Leydon

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

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40

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.

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12

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.

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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.

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