Quarantine vs Rec

The more movie reviews I read day after day, I more I realize that most people just do not get it. For one, remakes are not necessarily a bad thing these days… Take Rob Zombie’s Halloween for example. I am the biggest fan of John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween that you will probably ever meet! Did I hold it against Mr. Zombie that he decided to take on a huge horror classic a couple of years ago? No… now at first, I was reluctant about seeing his take on the whole Laurie Strode, Michael Myers, Halloween night story. Everybody was, I think. Did I give it a chance? Yes! And guess what? I loved it. I loved his revealing Michael’s descent into the serial killer he is now. I enjoyed finding out about his past, I ate up the performance of Daeg Faerch, who played young Michael Myers. The point is, I gave it a chance.

What is the point of this post, I can almost hear you asking. I recently, thanks to Netflix, got to finally sit down and watch Quarantine, starring Jennifer Carpenter, Jake Hernandez, and Dania Ramirez. You might know Dania Ramirez from her short time on Heroes, as Maya, the girl with the power to kill anyone in her path, involuntarily of course. You already know Jennifer Carpenter from her time on Dexter. She was also in The Exorcism of Emily Rose about 3 or 4 years ago.

I liked Quarantine. I loved the camerawork. I thoroughly enjoyed Jennifer’s performance in the movie. She was believable when she broke down, after realizing that the building she was in, along with the local fire department, was being closed off…from the media, from power, from the outside. Especially from the sharpshooters who were standing nearby, ready to aim and fire at anyone who dared leave the apartment complex! She stayed calm when her part called for it. She got downright hysterical when she was alone in the room with one of the zombie residents. I gave her bug Kudos! for how she did, and walked away from the movie thinking that it was a great freaking movie!

Well, imagine my shock and disappointment when I jumped online and did a search on Quarantine. I found so many negative reviews on the movie…it saddened me. Here was a great movie! Why are people knocking it? It took a little while longer until I discovered the reason so many critics and some of the public frowned on the film. The reason, according to more horror review sites that I care to even mention in passing, is because it was a remake! That’s right…I said a remake. A reboot. A reworking of someone else’s work, according their personal preferences and style. Quarantine was a shot by shot, word by word, angle by angle, remake of Rec, a spanish movie about zombies, using a single camera to record every happening.

Does it matter that Quarantine was a total and absolute remake of Rec? I happen to think not. Quarantine was, in essence, all by itself, a great movie. The zombies were scary. The panic and dread was easily felt by anyone who watched the movie. The acting caliber present in Quarantine was wonderful. If you want to split hairs over this, fine. Just don’t go talking negative about a fantastic movie, simply because it was someone else’s vision in the first place! Watch Rec for what it is, if you can understand Spanish. If you can’t then watch Quarantine. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a movie over, so more and more people can understand and enjoy it! They’ve done that same thing with overseas game shows, and it does not hurt anybody there either!

The next time you watch a remake of an original horror movie, keep these things in mind…Observe the actors’ performance and judge that. Pay attention to the directions that the director wants to keep your focus on. Try to imagine yourself in the movie and compare others’ reactions to events, with how those things would make you feel. Someone took a lot of time and money to make the movie…Why not sit back, clear your mind, grab some popcorn, and enjoy it? Wouldn’t kill you!



One Response to “Quarantine vs Rec”

1. portrait painters says:

   November 26, 2009 at 5:46 am

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