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Quarantine
6.056%44%5.8
A television reporter and her cameraman are trapped inside a building quarantined by the CDC, after the outbreak of a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty killers.
Where to Watch Quarantine
- Dario TibayJuly 26, 2026I keep Quarantine in the library partly because it is a useful companion piece to [REC] and partly because it remains a solid 89-minute found-footage horror film when watched without turning the entire experience into an adaptation audit. The setup is efficient: reporter Angela Vidal and cameraman Scott follow a Los Angeles fire crew to an apartment building, the residents are sealed inside, and a rabies-like infection begins moving through the occupants. Once the doors are closed, the film rarely relaxes. Jennifer Carpenter carries the panic convincingly, while Jay Hernandez, Steve Harris and Columbus Short give the early emergency response enough structure for its eventual collapse to matter. The full four-storey apartment set also gives the handheld camera somewhere physical to travel. The stairwell, lobby, lift and corridors become familiar, but never safe. The lack of a conventional score is another major strength. Screaming, footsteps, radio messages, impacts and distorted breathing do the work that music would normally handle. The final night-vision sequence still looks good, with Doug Jones providing an effectively inhuman presence without the film relying on obvious digital spectacle. Its weakness is fidelity. Anyone familiar with [REC] will recognise nearly every major beat, and the American explanation for the infection is much less disturbing than the original’s religious material. The familiar cast also makes the film feel slightly more performed and less accidentally captured. Worth revisiting as a compact outbreak film, although [REC] remains the version I would reach for first.
- James SaenzOctober 4, 2025i watched this as a kid and all i remembered was the final shot where angela’s crawling towards the camera and then she’s pulled into the darkness. i used it as a reference for a home video my brother and father and i made. years later i finally watched [rec] and that was such a great found footage film, and very soon into my viewing i realized that quarantine was just an american remake of that movie. watching it now, this is just a shot for shot remake that somehow manages to be less scary and less captivating. i’m not sure how you manage to copy another film nearly bar for bar and manage to lose the sauce in the process. p.s. lmao is this joey king’s first role?
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Quarantine was released on October 10, 2008.
Quarantine was directed by John Erick Dowdle.
Quarantine has a runtime of 89m.
Quarantine was produced by Doug Davison, Roy Lee.
A television reporter and her cameraman are trapped inside a building quarantined by the CDC, after the outbreak of a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty killers.
The key characters in Quarantine are Sadie (Dania Ramirez), Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter), Jake (Jay Hernandez).
Quarantine is rated R.
Quarantine is a Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller film.
Quarantine has an audience rating of 4.4 out of 10.
Quarantine had a budget of $12M.
Quarantine has made $40.9M at the box office.