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Arts & Culture

Teen Critic Says Nothing Beats the Original

Look familiar? The Spanish film [REC] was the inspiration for the Hollywood film Quarantine (Filmax)

By Jason Lacsamana

The movie Quarantine (opened October 10 throughout San Diego) was one bad excuse of a remake of the original Spanish film [REC] . The viewer sees the events through the lens of a TV cameraman throughout the film. In the film a news reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman Scott accompany a squad of firefighters to expose the life of a firefighter at night. The firefighters are called upon to respond to a report of an elderly woman in distress in her apartment. Once they arrive on the scene events take a turn for the worse. Angela, her cameraman, the firefighters, and all the residents of the apartment are suddenly quarantined in the building by the CDC (Center for Disease Control). They are trapped without any information as to why. They are only told that they could not leave. It is clear to them that something is seriously wrong and if they plan to survive then escape would be their only hope.

To all those who haven't seen the original version of this film, [REC], this movie might seem pretty good. Its shaky camerawork makes the viewer feel like they are actually in the movie as it intensifies certain scenes. The intense scenes in the film keeps viewers biting their their lip in suspense. Although compared to the original, it was a poor excuse. I found that the original had more suspenseful moments than the remake. I was really upset that some original scenes were cut out to be replaced by some less gruesome scenes. The original also explained more of the background information while the remake cut out this vital information for scenes that really lacked any meaning besides showing gore and violence.

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If you want to see a good suspenseful thriller Quarantine (rated R for bloody violent and disturbing content, terror and language) is the movie for you, but if you are able to, I highly suggest you watch [REC].

--Jason Lacsamana is a senior at Mount Miguel High School. He says he wants to be a Teen Critic because he loves watching movies and loves to critique them but never really had a way of sharing his critiques.He cites zombie movies as his favorites of all time.