Seen this, done this, used up all my fear with Cloverfield
It’s not for the lack of trying from writers Jaume Balaguero, Luis A. Berdejo or Paco Plaza. It’s not the lack of direction from John Erick Dowdle. It has nothing to do with the production. It’s the fact that this movie simply isn’t terrifying. Without giving away the spoils of the film, you basically have a camera crew (well, just one guy) who is doing an ‘after evening’ show with a young lady named Angela Vidal (played by Jennifer Carpenter). She goes to do a report on a fire station and ends up involved on an emergency call. The call leads them to an old apartment complex where they soon find out something is terribly amiss. The first indication is that the woman who needs help is actually trying to kill everyone. The second indication is that the building is soon locked down for Quarantine of an unknown reason. You find out the reason towards the end of the film.
The first rendition of this film, called [Rec], was based in Barcelona with the exact same setup. Again, I don’t want to give away too much for folks who are going to see this, so I’ll warn you now that there are spoilers coming up.
SPOILERS START
If you want someone to believe an event is going on, something of this magnitude, please take the Blair Witch (threw up a bit in mouth there, sorry) and the Cloverfield route and hire unknown actors! As soon as Vidal and crew hit the apartment complex I saw three familiar actors (not completely well-known and identifiable by the public) who played the apartment residents. If you want to make your audience believe and be there, don’t have anyone they can associate with another show. Cloverfield did this perfectly, so did the ‘other one’. That was my first disappointment.
Now, the second disappointment, probably the biggest, is the fact that the end result of all of this is because of mutated version of rabies that is affecting people. Not quite the kick that I was waiting for, but it apparently turns you into Resident Evil zombies once you’re bitten.
SPOILERS END
So, ultimately you do get some scary moments in the film. I’m not saying that you won’t jump or keep the lights on, but I am saying that the payoff just isn’t worth the trip. Out of all the films that I’ve seen in the past two years that have been of horror genre, I think I was a little bit disappointed with the result of this one. It started well, but ended with a very tiny rice-crispy like pop.
Don’t lock up these features
The Blu-ray itself is not that bad. In fact, it’s very impressive how they translated the film to HD so well. I had the pleasure to talk with Rich Marty, VP of Blu-ray for SPHE, about the process and he assured me that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment takes really good care of translating film to HD. I completely believe him. I think for a movie of this level, not that great, it looks fantastic and sounds even scarier in a 5.1 environment. In fact, I think that the upgraded sound actually intensifies the moments of fear. You gotta give them kudos, action films and horror films benefit from this type of enhancement.
As for the features, here’s what you get:
– Locked In: The Making of Quarantine
– Anatomy of a Stunt Featurette
– Dressing the Infected: Robert Hall’s Make-up Design
– Commentary from director/writer/producer
– BD-Live
A good, solid set of features that actually bring more of the film to life than the film itself. You’ll see the intentions of the filmmakers through the ‘making of’ featurette and you’ll get some fantastic commentary from the creators. You’ll also get some fun information about the make-up and the breakdown of a stunt. The features are quite cool and worth all the time you can give to them.