(Streamed via Plex)
A dumbass doctor brings lab rats infected with a zombie virus aboard a commercial flight. One of the rats bites a passenger who turns into a zombie and attacks one of the flight attendants. The plane is forced to make an emergency landing at a nearby airport where the passengers are forced to quarantine in an abandoned terminal. Naturally, the zombie rats get loose and bite more people. It’s then up to the sole surviving flight attendant (Mercedes Mason) to protect the passengers and stop the zombie virus from spreading.
One of the things outbreak movies lied to us about was the fact that when an outbreak happens, citizens are held at gunpoint by government agents in hazmat suits, who force them to follow the strict quarantine protocols. Maybe if we did that nowadays, we still wouldn’t be in the midst of a pandemic. Anyway…
Quarantine was a forgettable shaky-cam zombie flick. This sequel isn’t a Found Footage movie, so it’s immediately better in my book. Director John G. Pogue sometimes relies on handheld camerawork in hopes of putting the audience in the midst of the action, which helps to subtly remind you this is part of the Quarantine universe. Another nod to the Found Footage format is the POV sequence near the end in which a character dons night-vision goggles to escape the zombies in the dark. Thankfully, this scene doesn’t go on too long, so it wear out its welcome.
Overall, the zombie action is unfortunately kind of low. I did like the constant fake-outs in the beginning to make the audience guess where the zombie outbreak will start. However, the film twiddles its thumbs too much in the middle act to make it really worthwhile. We do get an OK zombie cat attack and a gnarly “test” scene in which a doctor jabs a hypodermic needle into his eye. I’ll take an extra-long Q-Tip up my nose any day next to that!
Pogue went on to direct Deep Blue Sea 3.
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