Since I’m avoiding work I need to be doing today, I thought I’d do another movie ‘review’ of sorts.

I really enjoy creepy, scary movies. They could be just thrillers or even horror. I’ll watch pretty much anything in the genre, even if it looks ridiculously dumb. I guess one of my favorite things is to be scared or surprised. I know, pretty sick. LOL.

This week I got a chance to see the movie “Quarantine.” One of those no-to-low budget type of films with one ‘name’ in the cast–the sister of “Dexter” fame. Overall, it wasn’t too bad. The basic premise is that a reporter and her cameraman who are following the fire department for the night end up on a call to an apartment building. They end up being quarantined inside the building with a bunch of diseased, crazy people. Chaos ensues.

Here are the things I liked:

1) The acting was really very good. Not just the main character…although she did a superb job of being freaked out…but even the minor characters were believably scared/insane/diseased.

2) The plot about why these people were quarantined. Somewhat believable and scary as crap.

3) Lots of chills and surprise attacks from all sides. Also, one truly gross scene that I LOVED.  (I know, I’m twisted.)

Here are the things I disliked:

1) This was shot in the ‘Blair Witch’ style of filmmaking (or “Cloverfield,” if you’d like a more current reference). Hand-held camera. The problem with this style is that there is a very claustrophobic feeling (which maybe was supposed to be the point of using that type of videography). The plot could’ve been served much better and made for a better film with the use of straightforward filming with actual editing.

2) It was really really dark. I had a hard time seeing what was going on in the second half of the film because they were relying only on the light from the camera itself. This increased the claustrophobia feel, but also made it difficult to see exactly what was going on. Which actually ruined some of the suspense.

3) The last bit, where they find the ‘reason’ behind the quarantine was sloppily done. People on the run would not be pawing through papers. (I don’t want to give anything else away)

Overall, not a bad little flick. Worth a rent if you like scary movies. And there’s not a ton of gore…and when there is, most of it is very obscured by the lighting issues I mentioned.