'Quarantine'

Son of 31 Nights, 31 Frights: Quarantine

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Son of 31 Nights, 31 Frights

In observance of that autumn spell when we celebrate the primal, compulsive instinct of fear, Rainestorm once more highlights 31 days of spooky scares to season the eerie atmosphere of Halloween.

For those who tuned in last year, I subjected you to a daily dose of diabolical dread and devilish distress. Just as every good horror movie deserves an inferior sequel, I offer this follow-up of also-rans, not bads, and perhaps a couple of you’ve-gotta-be-kidding-mes.

Unleashed: 2008

'Quarantine'
“Oh, please. Don’t look at me without my make-up on.”

What evil lurks: Nearly identical to its progenitor, [REC], this American remake gets a slight edge by stripping away the supernatural elements and giving the zombie outbreak a more terrifying, earthly origin. This also gives Quarantine an element of whodunit that’s missing from the Spanish original. In the years following The Blair Witch Project, the found-footage horror genre has become somewhat saturated, with mixed results. For every Quarantine, there are two Paranormal Activitys, and no, that is definitely not a good thing. The setup of this film gives credibility to the why of ongoing filming, giving necessity to the presence of the camera. The now standard “And Then There Were None” horror movie structure culminates in a truly creepy finale.

Highlight from hell: The cameraman bashes in the head of one of the zombie victims, in horrifying POV close-up.

Terrifying trivia: All the symptoms in the film of the illness are genuine symptoms of rabies.

Diabolical dialogue: “They’re not gonna let us out of here alive, are they?”

Son of: 28 Days Later… (2002). It’s easy to say [REC] but that film is really more like Quarantine‘s older twin brother. Though the zombie genre has been firmly established for decades thanks to George A. Romero, this film turned it on its ear by popularizing the zombie as virus victim, as well as introducing audiences to the powerful, running zombie, and allowing for a solid remake of Romero’s own Dawn of the Dead two years later.

Shoddy sequel syndrome: Why in in the world would you give away the last shot of your movie in the preview?