If you like Déjà vu, go see “Quarantine.” It will have you swearing you’ve seen it before.
The plot commences with a television reporter, played by Jennifer Carpenter of ‘Emily Rose’ fame, and her camera man spending the night shift with members of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
They receive a call that sends them to an old apartment complex where residents have reported the guttural screams of a woman on the top floor.
When a policeman and the firemen go to investigate, the seemingly deranged woman attacks the responders and it is discovered that she has been infected with a virus similar to rabies.
After more are found to be infected, and the remaining residents attempt to leave the property, the Center for Disease control blocks off all exits to the building and the footage captured on camera is the only proof available of the incident.
Through the camera man’s lens, the film is shot in an earthquake cam fashion that calls on the nauseating stylings of “Cloverfield.” Only a slight eeriness is captured with the aid of the night vision lens.
In addition, the movie takes elements from ‘28 Days Later’ where a diseased population continues to spread a biohazardous disease created in the confines of a laboratory.
Special effects were minimal and the film relied mostly on the workings of a makeup artist to capture the zombie-esque appearance of the infected apartment dwellers.
Predictable and cheesy, the spastic acting of Carpenter becomes increasingly annoying until finally she’s removed from the presence of the viewer and the credits roll.