Quarantine Watch - 2008; first official post

For those who've paid even partial attention to this blog, they'll have noticed the abundance of Quarantine mentions. Quarantine, for those not in the know, which is probably most of you since it's more of a geek thing really, is a new horror flick coming in October, and it's a remake of a 2007 Spanish flick called [Rec] that I swear by, and is fuckin' genius on celluloid. It's shot in that cinema verite, Blair Witch/Cloverfield format, and is like 28 Days Later confined into one infected apartment building. I hate trivializing movies by merely name-dropping others they're reminiscent of, but I'm not in the mood to overwrite a plot synopsis, so it'll due here.

A briefing: I've been close to obsessive with the Quarantine red band trailer (or, the R-rated trailer not seen in theaters, but only online) since it's 'net debut a couple weeks ago, and I've been counting the days 'til I can feats my eyes on it. And they're not doing press screenings, which is never a good sign but we'll look away from that for the time being, so I'll have to wait and see it when it opens on October 10. In fact, I may just take off that whole day from work, in honor of the film, but mainly because I have my great friend's wedding rehearsal dinner that night anyway. Two birds with one stone.

Back to the matter at hand, and my reason for this particular entry. Earlier today, I did a phone interview with the John Erick Dowdle and his brother Drew (John directed and co-wrote Quarantine; Drew produced and co-wrote the script). One of my job perks is being able to talk with some of the people behind the films that matter to me, or excite me, or intrigue me. So for the fulltime grind, I'm covering Quarantine in an upcoming ish. But mostly, this was my chance to either amplify my newvous concerns over whether this one will tarnish the stellar name of [Rec], or, if the cinema Gods aren't so crazy after all, to calm my conerns through the Dowdle's impressive answers and sentiments.

Thankfully, it was the latter. These were two of the nicest and giddiest people I've talked to yet. They're clearly uber excited about Quarantine, and love the original as much as I do, which rocks. And I learned that it's not a traditional remake, but one that was developed directly alongside its original. I'll delve into that more in my magazine piece on the subject. But yeah, I feel much better now, and I'm actually even more amped for this shit. I'd go into detail about the things they told me they're doing differently than the [Rec] makers, but it'd all be insignificant to anybody who hasn't seen [Rec], so I'll just leave it at = Matt hung up the phone quite pleased. Rejoice. Now, having never seen any of the Dowdles' other work, I have no clue whether they're even capable enough to do this, but at least they're hearts are in the right place. That's gotta stand for somethin'.

Oh, and I've decided to start doing some sort of "Quarantine Watch - 2008" within these blog postings. Which means, every now and then, up until its release, I'm going to toss in a gratuitous Quarantine posting of some sort, leading up the grand finale one on October 11 when I give me opinion on the finished product. Yes, I'm a nerd like that.

While we're on the subject of the Dowdles today....Quarantine will be their first mainstream flick, but not their official debut. Last year, they made this other "found footage" movie called The Poughkeepsie Tapes, which I hear is pretty sick. It's been floating around in Hollywood purgatory until the intake $$ numebrs of Quarantine trickle in. If Quarantine makes bread, Poughkeepsie will be dumped into theaters by year's end, just to capitalize off of their newfound momentum. Regardless, I just want to see the shit. It's basically a compilation of home video recordings found in a serial killer's home, footage of said nutjob stalking his victims and killing others. A real family fun, in other words.

In fact, to get a taste of just how bizarrely twisted Poughkeepsie will be, check out this clip I dug up on the 'Tube of You:



Don't ask me what the fuck is going on there....but do I love the shit out of it, you ask? I'll take "hell yes" for 100, Alex.