Quarantine

News crew follows a fire department around for a night only to get a medical emergency call at an apartment. They show up and the person the call was made for looks to be delirious and some strange symptoms. Things go on and she turns into a Zombie like creature and attacks. After subduing her every one tries to get out only to find that the CDC and all kinds of crazy police and government agencies have locked them in the building with no reason. The rest of the film is everyone trying to survive/escape/kill some zombies.

I'll warn you now, this is not a steady cam shot film. Not as jerky as Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project, but not as steady as Diary Of The Dead. I personally love this form of filming, but I know it is not for a lot of people. I don't know, it just seems realer when filmed this way. Immerses me more into the world and story I guess. Adds realism. I mean it is a guy running around filming everything with a shoulder camera in the film, why not actually use the footage he would get instead of trying to show it by keeping the camera still. I am glad they are using more advanced cameras in these forms of film though. Too shaky can bug me a bit since I am also big on trying to pick out details. There would also be no reason a professional news crew that wouldn't have a steadier camera.

This film was also a little celebrity quiet when it came to cast. The only difference is that there were not huge celebrities hidden in the film. Like, two people from Heroes, the guy from Hostel, the guy who played Boris The Blade and a slew of other TV celebs. Maybe I'm just that much of a geek that I catch all of the small names most others do not. But they were not needed to sell the film for me. Just the overall story and action did that mainly.

Not going to go over the acting in this because no one in the film was playing anything more than things like "Police Officer In The Middle Of Zombie Attack" or "Random Person In The Middle Of Zombie Attack." It felt like at the first they were trying to make you feel for the characters, but it didn't make you feel one way or another if you wanted the people to survive or not. Mind you, I'm not saying the acting sucked, but the characters they were given really didn't have much range to play with. It was mainly "Life is good and normal" and "Holy Fuck! ZOMBIES!" Little in between. I do like the fact that they didn't try to force a love interest like in other films. In fact the closest they came to a "love interest" was the firefighters talking about who was going to nail the reporter first.

This film did bring up some talk on who is on the zombie team or not, at least from the film. The final verdict, there was one CDC guy that said fuck this and saved his own ass. Saw a zombie bite someone and said fuck them. As it should be. Then there was one of the firefighters who went around kicking ass and taking names with a sledgehammer. Yes a sledgehammer! Now that was hardcore. Not to mention he also curb-stomped one into the stairs as well. Finally, the camera guy. Sounds odd seeing as all the other camera guys in films like this suck. But this one was so hard that he killed a zombie with his fucking camera. That's right. Didn't even break the thing either. So there you have it.

Rating: 10/10

Note: A little bias given what I said at the beginning.

Side Discussion

This film also sparked an interesting conversation on what one would do if they were in that situation. I know what people say they would do, but what would they really do. Like it sparked from my buddy saying that if he saw someone get bit, he would just put them down right there and then. I countered by saying, "Well once they have established that it is a 'Zombie' Attack that's fine and good, but what would you do during the initial stages? Would you shoot me right now if some random person ran up and bit me?" This of course started the debate of how most movie portray what would truly happen if it did happen in the real world. The fact that everyone would be confused and scared at first. No one would know what was exactly going on and fear or irrationality would set in. Then after they have established what's going on, enact the Zombie Plan. I mean look at Dawn of the Dead or any Zombie film. They all go that route. No one is a "Zombie Expert" in any film. Because even your "Zombie Expert" in the real world still has their human instincts that kick in first. Think about it. Unless you are one of those crazy people like the guy from Undead, but then again, he died.

That a side, always have a Zombie Plan ready. You will need it once things are established and it is time to go to work.