Quarantine

Well it just couldn't be as good as myfilmvault's virtual lock for film of the year could it. Could it? [Rec] is the only film in both mine and Matt's top 3 - it got an A+ from him, an A from me. The last time we agreed on a film, Scorsese was just an Oscarless journeyman director and Arnold Schwarzenegger had as much political clout as Jean Claude Van Damme. We nevr agree on films - yet on [Rec] we agree; it is essential viewing.

Watching an original film and virtual shot for shot remake in the space of 6 months feels a little more like homework than going to the cinema should. I couldn't help myself making frequent comparisons to the original: comparing characters, comparing actors that played those characters, spotting deviations in plot or structure, comparing dialogue. Certain things were done better, some felt pointless, many changes however simply made the film weaker, and a couple made you scratch your head and wonder what the director was thinking.

The main points for comparison are the quality of acting and screenplay. Jennifer Carpenter is surprisingly accomplished for a relative newcomer in her first starring role. She convinces throughout and deals with some difficult scenes very well. However, she is simply not as good as Manuela Valesco who was near faultless in the [Rec]. Supporting characters are a mixed bunch in the remake, whilst I don't remember any weak links at all in the original. Unless you are really anti subtitles, there is little doubt that the Spanish film has the finest script. A couple of crass jokes in Quarantine take you out of the picture and characters behave a little more stupidly in this than they do in [Rec]. It is a typical horror film complaint of mine for inexplicable behaviour, but that was a complete rarity in the original. Not so here, although it is nowhere near as bad as many contemporary US horrors.

Plot variations are admittedly slight, although those minor changes do feel completely unnecessary. Why focus at length on a open fracture for instance - horror films are surely at their best when eliciting a sense of dread, fear or, well, horror. A rather gross looking wound elicits none of those emotions and for me it's a disappointing nod (albeit a slight one) to the appalling likes of Hostel where the torture porn aspect seems infinitely more important than actual plot, structure or intelligence.

Ultimately of course, if I'd seen Quarantine first these quibbles would disappear and I'd be on hear telling you to go and see this wonderful film. After all they've done very little to it and based it on an excellent film. How could it possibly fail? Answer: it couldn't, and it hasn't. However since it is the lesser of the two trapped-in-an-apartment-block first person video camera filmed horror films released in 2008, you really should check out the better one.

B-