Quarantine (John Erick Dowdle, 2008)

Quarantine (John Erick Dowdle, 2008)There isn’t anything new or revelatory to be found here—it’s pretty much 28 Days Later by way of the Blair Witch/Cloverfield aesthetic—but what it sets out to do it does quite well. Director John Erick Dowdle has a good sense of how to create tension and milk the film’s rather thin premise for all it’s worth, although a cursory glance at the Spanish film he’s remaking, [Rec] (which you can watch, appropriately enough given its visual style, on YouTube), shows that many of the film’s best moments are literal shot-for-shot recreations (including the grabber of a final shot, the effectiveness of which is all but ruined if you’ve seen the film’s trailer). (Hollywood Jewel 16, Waco, TX)