** this review contains only minor spoilers **
I liked this better than the original, but I deserve cinephile credit: I saw [REC] first. That film came out in 2007, Spain's entry in the viral-horror pandemic. It's a good film, but some of the dark humor seemed to get lost in translation. Also, [REC] involves Satanism, whereas the remake is more secular, if far from divine.
I believe that most horror films include a behavior that draws punishment on a moral level, even if it seems to be peripheral. For example: in Night of the Living Dead, Johnny clowns in the cemetery, a sacred place (I believe it's a Sunday, which makes it worse). In the world of the film and in the viewer's subconscious, the zombie mayhem is punishment for a world that has forgotten respect. Johnny is the first to die.
Of course, this is essentially true anywhere: we admire firefighters and other first responders. In both [REC] and Quarantine, the heroic characters discover and interact with a group of variously reclusive, self-involved people. Instead of a wealth gap, these movies portray an enormous socialization gap, an abyss.
I liked this better than the original, but I deserve cinephile credit: I saw [REC] first. That film came out in 2007, Spain's entry in the viral-horror pandemic. It's a good film, but some of the dark humor seemed to get lost in translation. Also, [REC] involves Satanism, whereas the remake is more secular, if far from divine.
I believe that most horror films include a behavior that draws punishment on a moral level, even if it seems to be peripheral. For example: in Night of the Living Dead, Johnny clowns in the cemetery, a sacred place (I believe it's a Sunday, which makes it worse). In the world of the film and in the viewer's subconscious, the zombie mayhem is punishment for a world that has forgotten respect. Johnny is the first to die.
In Quarantine, the trigger is a little tougher to spot, because the protagonists are an impressive group of people: a perky TV-show host (Jennifer Morrison), her loyal cameraman, and a group of firemen, the subject of the show. In the U.S., any city's firemen are known as that town's bravest; for example, Boston's firefighters are "Boston's bravest."
Of course, this is essentially true anywhere: we admire firefighters and other first responders. In both [REC] and Quarantine, the heroic characters discover and interact with a group of variously reclusive, self-involved people. Instead of a wealth gap, these movies portray an enormous socialization gap, an abyss.
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