Quarantine 2: The Terminal Review

After initially being scheduled for a straight-to-DVD release, Quarantine 2: The Terminal was granted a limited theatrical release a couple of weeks ago and hit theaters on June 17th. After hearing the news and checking out the trailer, I really didn't get why a theatrical release was granted but after watching the movie my mind was quickly changed! It's no [Rec] or [Rec]2 but Quarantine 2 surprised me in a lot of different ways. Given my expectations weren't that high going in, the sequel to the U.S. remake Quarantine, far exceeded my initials thoughts on the film and was a very entertaining horror flick from start from finish.

For those unfamiliar with the first film in the U.S. series, Quarantine takes place in an apartment building where a virus has spread and the residents within the apartment building have been quarantined off from the rest of the outside world. The inspector tells the residents that this unknown disease is infecting people and causing them to turn into bloodthirsty savages. A health inspector who works for the CDC reveals that the previous day, a dog was taken to a local veterinarian. The dog became violent and killed or infected the other pets at the clinic, causing them to be euthanized. The CDC traced the dog back to the apartment building. The disease is transmitted through bites acting as human rabies. The events that followed are what leads us to the sequel where it picks up later that night at LAX, as passengers board a flight to Nashville. Aboard the plane, one of the passengers gets bitten by a hamster which immediately leads to infection and an emergency landing takes place. They are dropped at a terminal which has already been closed off due to their arrival and similar events begin to take place.

Now with no noticeable stars in the film, you would expect the acting to be bad like most cheesy, low budget, under the radar horror movies but to be honest it wasn't half bad. Or maybe it was the scares and the suspense that took all the focus away from it because Quarantine 2 had it's fare share of both. Early in the film there was an immediate tie in to the original but brief enough that it made you wonder if there would be anymore nods to the first film. One thing that the original failed to explain was the cause of the infection. We know how the virus was spread and we saw how vicious it could be but in the sequel, there is actually an explanation as to how the virus manifested itself. There was also mention (MINOR SPOILER) of a survivor from the first film but it wasn't as clear on the subject as I would have hoped so it's all about how you take it and how close you pay attention.

What I liked most about the sequel was the fact that it got straight to the point! The horror and the gore and the suspense came early and often and always kept you on your toes. The bullet points behind the virus were already explained in the first film so with that out of the way filmmakers were able to solely focus on the scares and making a really good horror flick and they succeeded. This film will clearly get overlooked because of the poor promotion the film has received thus far, the comparisons to the Spanish series of films and the fact that the word REMAKE is close to blasphemy in this era of movie-making. But what I would say is to that is look at the Quarantine films as their own separate entity because that's what they are, completely different from the Spanish versions of the film. I tend to always look for that one horror film that is a diamond-in-the-ruff and with Quarantine 2: The Terminal, I think I found it!

Quarantine 2: The Terminal hit theaters in limited release in June 17th and will be available on DVD later this fall.