Quarantine......Watched!!!

[THE FOLLOWING IS TOTALLY OFF-THE-CUFF, AND WRITTEN IN A SOMEWHAT-EUPHORIC STATE...BEAR WITH ANY SCATTER-SHOT-NESS THAT MAY OCCUR WHILE READING]

Finally, after months of anticipation, excitement, anxiety, trepidation, and incessant writing-about on this here site, I've seen Quarantine.

[This is me right now]


And having written so much about it already on this here site, I've decided to keep my reaction (definitely positive, though with some strong complaints) brief. I figure, I'd rather people see it on their own and form their own opinions, rather than risking the possibility of either reading something I've jotted down and going into the movie with good or bad pre-conceptions. Just go in cold turkey, which is honestly something I wish I could've done. Having previously seen and loved [Rec], I do feel that the prior know-about gathered from [Rec] hindered my enjoyment here, just a smidge.

Of course, I'd imagine tons of y'all don't give a fuck about this movie and/or my thoughts about it, and won't even see it anyway. In that case, why are you even reading this post in the first place? Keep it moving, and save this for the horror-lovers and thrill-seekers out there, por favor?

Need help deciding whether to drop bread on this one or not? How does this sound to you....the first five relentless minutes of 28 Weeks Later, stretched out over a good 75% of a movie, and shot Cloverfield-style. Sounds worthy of your $$$? If so, Quarantine it is.

My grade for Quarantine: B+ (could improve to an A- after further viewings....[Rec], for comparison's sake, is an A+ in my gradebook]. If it were its own film entirely and didn't have an insanely-stellar foreign predecessor to live up to, Quarantine would be one-helluva ride. It still is, nonetheless, though ones with definite flaws. But I'd like to think that it'll make for a great "girlfriend gripping your hand, large auds shouting at the screen" evening at the flickhouse....and, most importantly of all to me, it did [Rec] justice. This could've been an utter shitshow, but the Dowdles and a rather-game cast made it work in the end, despite a few poorly-navigated bumps in the road.

Going to break my reactions into "Yay" and "Nay" categories....first the "Yay"s:

YAY
--by adding a good 13 minutes or so more to Quarantine than is seen in [Rec], the Dowdle Brothers (the filmmakers here) managed to slip in some pretty cool gags and further bodies for the slaughter.
--that being said, Quarantine doesn't follow the exact same playbook as a result. The structure, in terms of how things escalate from bad to worse to we're-fucked is still the same, but much more meat is tossed in to the pot. Including more characters.
--killer dogs? That's what I'm talkin' about! Infected rats used simply for gore's sake? Yes, please!
--dudes stumbling around with bones popping out of their legs? Ditto!
--using the camera to bash somebody's face in, violently and instantaneously? Hell yeah!
--Dania Ramirez, in what should-basically-be-called-underwear....speaks for itself
--pats-pn-back should also be issued to John Erick Dowdle, the director, for executing some very-long-takes all in single shots; or at least, through superb editing, making it seem so
--and in translation, the Dowdles' deserve kudos for keeping the tension and macabre of the story's "what the fuck," disorienting, dialogue-free climax damn-near-close to that of [Rec]....not as amazing, granted, but still quite effective

now, NAY:
--once the blood hits the floor and the shit hits the fans here, the handheld, first-person-POV camerawork becomes way too erratic at times. Put it this way--if Cloverfield made you wanna hurl, Quarantine will in fact induce spewing. This type of camera stuff doesn't bother me, so I was fine. But still....
--...such erratic shots diminished some of the best "money shots," or at least once that coulda, and shoulda, been. Mangled remains in an elevator, for example, look badass, but the camera's so frantic that your left with merely a rapid glimpse. And further, it becomes tough to tell who's attacking who, and who's eating who at some spots.
--and speaking of that elevator, it does provide some of the film's coolest moments, but still, it left me wondering: If all of the apartment building's power has been terminated, then how in the fuck is the elevator even working? I mean, I'm all about suspension-of-disbelief in horror, but this is quite obvious, and unavoidable to squawk about.
--the cause of the whole shebang is revealed to be slightly-more realistic in nature than what was provided in [Rec]. In the Spanish version, some weird satanic, demonic, borderline-supernatural shit is the cause, which I prefer at the end of the day to what's offered in Quarantine. The Quarantine explanation is still cool enough, but not as coolio.
--my favorite shot in [Rec], when our lead, Angela, looks down a staircase (to say more would be to spoil hugely, so I'll stay mum as to what she sees), is handled quite poorly in Quarantine. It's there, still, but sort of an afterthought amidst the amplified mayhem staged by those Dowdles.
--and in the middle of [Rec], there's a well-placed bit of calming-down, where Angela interviews some of the building's residents, spoon-feeding some necessary character personalities and backstories. In Quarantine, this lasts about a minute-and-a-half, then is quickly interuppted by insanity. Clearly, the Dowdles intended to make Quarantine a nonstop, can-you-handle-it-all ride, but in doing so, they've sacrificed the audiences' compassion toward anybody but Angela and the main fireman

I'll stop right there. Though it may seem like my "Nay"s outweight the "Yay"s here, don't get it twisted: I really liked Quarantine. Its just a film that holds a dear spot in my blood-pumper, so its only right that I score it a bit tougher than others. Adding to that, however, I definitely plan on seeing it a couple more times, even. It certainly shits on about 97% of the horror flicks made here in America, and I do appreciate how it sticks to its R-rated guns and doesn't shy away from going "there."



And considering that our only other legit Halloween/genre option this October is that fuckin' Saw V, which I'm going to boycott and not see (enough is enough, already....I'll save further Saw hate for a future post), I really do hope that Quarantine is seen by tons and makes some serious scratch.

I can sleep easier, now. All of that pre-release-hoopla is over. I left the cinema happy. Not ecstatic, but quite pleased. I really want to see how Quarantine plays to a packed, weekend-night crowd...the screening I saw was a "courtesy" press one, so it was full of tighly-wound, holier-than-thou film critics, who avoid any sense of enjoyment simply out of dubious entitlement.

Lames.