Quarantine 2: Terminal

While QUARANTINE was the American remake of the Spanish zombie film REC, QUARANTINE 2: TERMINAL is not a remake of REC's sequel, REC 2. Instead, it's a stand-alone sequel that sees a group of survivors struggling to cope when one of their number is infected during a routine flight from LAX.

Sadly, QUARANTINE 2 turns out to be as familiar and by rote as you'd expect from this stagnating genre. The whole zombie thing has truly be done to death (or should that be un-death?) these past few years, and nowhere is that more evident than here. In fact, this isn't even the first zombies-on-a-plane film I've watched; I've already had the misfortune of sitting through FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which was equally poor.

Most of the film is set within the bowels of an airport terminal, which just has the normal disused warehouse look to it. The small cast are full of uninteresting characters and the acting is uniformly bland from the entire group. The director has some experience of writing cheesy B-movies but his inexperience behind the camera shows. They also get rid of the whole 'found footage' aspect here, which was a bit disappointing; at least it would have made the attempted scares more immediate.

I've seen both Rec and Quarantine, and enjoyed both of them immensely. Quarantine 2 was not a movie I had my heart on seeing, basically because I didn't think it could live up to the standard of its predecessor (or the Spanish original.) On that count, I was right. This isn't as good as the first movie. Having said that, one of my tests for any horror movie is whether it has the ability to scare you and make you jump. This one does that, so I have to call it a good movie. It has a lot of chills and jump out of your seat moments, my wife actually screamed at least twice that I recall. It works, in other words. That fright quality isn't as sustained as it is in the first movie, though. In fact, this is pretty slow off the top. A few people board an airplane and they're not feeling too well. If you've seen the first movie, then you know what's happening (or, more to the point, what's going to happen) so you're basically just waiting for it.

One thing that I noted was that the events of this movie were taking place at the same time as the events of Quarantine. In fact, one of the airplane passengers is using the airplane's wifi to watch a news broadcast about the quarantined building in Los Angeles. While the disease and its effects are pretty much the same, there's more of an effort made here to get to the background and origins of the disease, which is really dealt with only in a few hints toward the end of Quarantine.

Quarantine (and Rec) are filmed in a "Blair Witch" style - hand held cameras recording the action as it takes place. Quarantine 2 takes a more standard approach to movie-making. I think the hand held camera idea has been done to death, quite frankly, so I didn't miss it. It's clear that the ending of this movie was also intended to set up another potential sequel. That was just a little too obvious. Basically, I'd say this isn't as good as the movies that spawned it, but as a horror movie it's still very effective. (7/10)

Quarantine : the terminal¨ by John Pogue deals with a plane is taken over by a terrifying virus , when it lands it is placed under quarantine . Passengers soon learn that a man has been infected by something unknown and after being attacked by the zombie-like people . All of them are trapped inside a terminal quarantined , after the outbreak of the mysterious virus which becomes humans into bloodthirsty murderers and then getaway is not an option . A flight attendant Jenny (Mercedes Mason) leads the distressed people inside the quarantined building and occupying to spend themselves the night against the zombies . But communication means have been cut-off and no way out . Now an unfortunate bunch of survivors must band together to survive the quarantine when they are brutally attacked by psycho people who have been possessed by strange and eerie forces . The astonishing group attempts the escape but they only encounter that have been sealed off and try to avoid the bloody attacks .

Horror story filled with suspense , restless terror , thrills and lots of gore and blood . Regular follow-up full of eerie scenes with zombies and creepy attacks . This following deals with the most deadly mutant virus just went airborne , it packs a sinister and horrifying atmosphere by means of shaky camera as well as the former Spanish film titled ¨REC¨ . This sequel to one of the highest earning horror movies of the last years titled ¨Rec¨ , that was shot in documentary style and itself takes place from point of sight from cameraman . It was followed by Rec II and Rec III , Genesis , all of them written/produced/directed by Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero , two magnificent experts on terror genre . And the American remake : ¨Quarantine¨ , a solid film , itself is realized in similar premise to the Spanish originals , it was directed by John Erik Dowdle with a good cast as Jennifer Carpenter , Jay Hernandez , Johnathon Schaech , Steve Harris and Rade Serbedzija . Being continued by this ¨Quarantine 2: Terminal¨ (original title) with unknown cast as Josh Cooke , Mattie Liptak , Ignacio Serricchio , Bre Blair , Noree Victoria , it is an acceptable movie but mediocre , a so-so terror story plenty of suspense , restless horror , and in thrilling style . The flesh-eating infected appearances deliver the goods , plenty of screams , shocks and tension . The horror moments are compactly made and fast-moving . It packs tension , shocks , thrills , chills and lots of gore and blood , but the original is far superior . Well worth seeing if you like videos and shaky cameras , such us : ¨Blair witch project¨, ¨28 Days/Weeks¨ and ¨Cloverfield¨ . It has a dark cinematography and exciting musical score . The picture was professionally directed , but with no originality , by John Pogue who has written/produced/directed various successful films , such as : ¨Quiet ones¨ , ¨Ghost ship¨ , ¨Us Marshals¨ , ¨The Fast and the Furious¨ and ¨Skulls 2¨ . Rating : 5,5 , passable follow-up that will appeal to horror fans

I did not have high hopes for this movie, since it was made straight to DVD. Yet, I loved it! There are plenty of jumpy parts, tolerable gore (for me), and creepy dark places. You have the usual common characters and dilemmas, some corny lines, but pretty decent acting for a low budget film. I recommend watching the first Quarantine movie before, this movie ties into it. Would give it a 10 but a lot of the dialog was so predictable. Anyone could have written them. So, don't expect the characters to be like the series, "The Walking Dead". However, if you just love watching movies that involve zombies, infections, apocalypse situations, and not overly stupid characters, then this movie should be added to your Watchlist!

There isn't really all that much to say about this movie, except that it's pretty much more of the same. It wears its influences on its sleeve, being highly derivative of 28 Days Later, which itself was already fairly derivative. If this is a big problem for you, I'd suggest that you avoid Quarantine 2, because you're just going to get mad at how little originality is on display.

Instead of remaking Rec 2, this movie is more of a standalone story set in the same universe as Quarantine. This time, instead of being set in an apartment complex, it's briefly set on an airplane, then a terminal. Rec (and Quarantine, the American remake) was notable for being shot first person, while this movie is not. That might disappoint some people, but I wasn't really fond of the trend in the first place. The story is contemporaneous with the story of the first movie, with brief references to it here and there. You don't need to have seen the first movie, but that's partially because this movie is so derivative of other movies, you've already seen this plot several times before. That said, as far as these sorts of movies go, this was fairly well acted and competently directed, though the director falls back on using extremely loud noises as a rather annoying crutch. Just when you think there might be character development, extended dialogue, or a moment for reflection, there's an extremely loud noise and a rabid person bursts through a wall. Often, first time directors will err on the side of slow pacing, though I think the characters obviously suffered a bit for the relentlessly fast pacing. The writer/director also wrote Ghost Ship, which was laughably bad. Unfortunately, he hasn't really progressed as a writer since then. I guess if you didn't mind Ghost Ship, you won't be offended by this, either. However, as silly as I found Rec 2's supernatural aspect, it was an interesting twist to the whole "rage virus" subgenre of horror movies. Quarantine 2 plays it straight and just lets loose a bunch of rabid humans on a clichéd group of people who perpetually seem to populate the scripts of hack writers.

If I seem overly harsh, it's only because I'm tired of watching the same movie over and over with very little variation. If you're a fan of scifi/action/horror movies, you've seen this all before, right down to the characters, the action sequences, and the supposed "homages". Why bother being original if nobody calls you on your lack of creativity?