Weekly Review -- Remaking disease

Quarantine (2008) -- Another remake on the horizon? Of course. Having been terrified by the original [Rec] a few months ago, I was looking forward to comparing this John Erick Dowdle movie to the one that started it all. Unfortunately, it does not measure up. Reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman Scott (Steve Harris) are filming a show on firefighters for Angela's nightly broadcast. After a call shakes up the monotony at the station, Jennifer and Scott leave with the two firefighters they are supposed to be shadowing. When they turn up at the location, the situation grows more and more serious by the minute, and soon the group are trapped inside a sealed-off building... The movie is nearly a shot-by-shot remake of [Rec], which does not go in its favor. A film's second incarnation should either re-interpret the story in a creative manner or add its previously unexplored aspects to the mix, in order to be effective. Dowdle does not take either approach, preferring instead to cash in on the original by simply translating it and bringing nothing new to the already experienced suspense. As far as acting goes, Carpenter and Harris have the best moments, particularly Harris, who manages to add humanity to the events unfolding without ever being visible himself. Carpenter successfully alternates between high-pitched enthusiasm and sheer panic. She is at her most poignant with Angela's tough facade crumbling and the realization of doom creeping up; indeed, encountering a zombie virus on assignment is not exactly something that a reporter would ever expect. I did not find that the supporting players were given much to do, except stand around looking scared and launching into full-on attack mode when their characters became infected. The original does a much better job at utilizing documentary-style realism to show the progression of the tenants' reactions from bewilderment to fear to utter hopelessness; the remake is stuck in an attempt to do so, acting out the Blair Witch instead of narrating the Blair Witch. The last twenty minutes of the film -- a part of [Rec] that impressed me both in terms of storytelling and visuals -- are very bland here, not delivering on the potential of the idea and certainly not up to par with Balagueró and Plaza's bleak aesthetics in general and sinister camerawork used in this sequence. It is too bad that significant changes were made to the one part that should have remained the same, and that hardly any changes were made to parts that should have displayed innovation. Quarantine had a chance to be a new take on the tale, but it is merely a weak re-run with few scares worthy of your time.

5/10