Directed by: John Erick Dowdle

Reviewed by: Fergus McShane

Price: £15.99

[ratings]

Quarantine is the latest in an evergrowing line of Hollywood remakes of foreign language films already successful outside the Hollywood system. In this case the source aterial is the simple and stylistic Spanish shock-horror [REC] released in 2007. Quarantine is a virtual shot-for-shot reworking of the original, which in true Hollywood form adds a more frantic pace and a more logical answer to the events taking place.

The film follows a local news reporter (Jennifer Carpenter) documenting a fire crew working a night shift when they are called out to an incident in an apartment building. Things quickly take a turn for the worse when a rabid zombie-esque infection spreads through the residents and everyone is quarantined inside with no explanation and even worse, no escape in sight.

Quarantine in most ways follows in the standard practice of remakes: attempting to amp up the adrenaline and/or tension in order to replace the automatically lost freshness of the original. In this case though, it works quite well. The film is powerfully claustrophobic, delivering plenty of frightening edge-of-your-seat moments and a welcome amount black humour. A worthy transformation to Hollywood if you missed the Spanish original.

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