Quarantine is – from all accounts – a shot for shot remake of a 2007 Spanish film called [REC]. The premise the same a news reporter (here, Jennifer Carpenter) follows around a firefighting unit one night when they’re sent to a tenement. The firefighters (including Jay Hernandez and Jonathan Schaech) have to deal with an old woman gone crazy, but once they get in the building it becomes quarantined, and the power gets cut off. The building manager (Rade Serbedzija) is of no help, and it turns out a number of the tenants are infected by what appears to be a strain of rabies that is immediately transferred and fatal, or at least that’s what Veterinarian Lawrence (Greg Germann) thinks, anyway.

One camera faux-doc horror has been done before (Blair Witch Project), and earlier in 2008, real-time horror was the film of the moment (Cloverfield). This then combines the two, and it works well enough in that the film is short. But there’s not much here besides boo scares, and one of the best was ruined by the trailers and advertising art. That’s some bullshit. They film gets better as it goes along, perhaps because Carpenter is a TV star and a number of the players are recognizable faces, so it doesn’t have that same immediacy of unknowns. But that also helps the film in some ways because films like this also function under similar principles as Ten Little Indians.

The film was written and directed by John Dowdle, and written and produced by Drew Dowdle, best known for The Poughkeepsie Tapes (which may get released this year), and they do a fine job, though from all evidence is that they followed the formula. Perhaps they needed to make this film to do something in the system. Hopefully they’ve got some chops. This works on its own terms, though.

Sony presents the film in widescreen (1.78:1) and in Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1. The transfer is excellent, and looks excellent at home as it’s meant to look video, as it was video. The Dowdles provide a commentary, a making of (10 min.), a make-up effect featurettes (7 min.) and a stunts featurette (3 min.), and bonus trailers.