Rabid for Rocky Horror: Quarantine Set Visit Report
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I remember November 2007 as sort of a rabid harmonic convergence.
It was weird — there was a story on the news about infected bats who, as a matter of course, had their heads severed and sent to veterinarians for confirmation of their affliction; I watched Old Yeller again for the first time in years; and I was smack in the middle of the Chuck Palahniuk novel, Rant, which is about a rabid man whose mission in life is to spread the disease and make it a worldwide plague. On top of all that, I got an invite from Screen Gems to stop by the set of their newest horror movie, Quarantine, which is about, you guessed it: The virus also known as hydrophobia.
Quarantine is a remake of a Spanish language shocker called REC (named so for the flashing red letters one sees in the viewfinder of a video camera), and it's helmed by relative unknowns John and Drew Dowdle. The Dowdles have been in the filmmaking biz for a decade, but it was their well-received indie, The Poughkeepsie Tapes, that got them the job to remake REC. This is not without some static from its originators, Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero — they've publically wondered why their flick, which had only just come out in 2007, couldn't simply be released Stateside with subtitles.
Drew Dowdle explained that he and his brother do have high respect for REC. "We stayed pretty true to the original. The original was very good, but it wasn’t very long. It was less than 70 minutes, so that gave us an opportunity to add some scenes of our own and really beef it up. I think everyone at Screen Gems and Vertigo went with a 'if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it' mentality, so we stayed true the original in many ways. [And for the record] my brother is very much the director and I’m the producer. We divide and conquer that way."
In the English language movie, which will be in theaters everywhere on October 10, 2008, actors Jennifer Carpenter ("Dexter") and Steve Harris ("The Practice") play a reporter and a cameraman who are on a routine assignment when they find themselves quarantined by the CDC inside a disease-ridden apartment building.
This strain of rabies is uber to say the least, and before anyone can say "lock-jaw", the tenants become biting, clawing, crazed predators. Also sealed inside are a few firemen who were called to the scene before the closure — they're played by Screen Gems fave Johnathon Schaech (Prom Night remake), Columbus Short (Stomp the Yard), and Hostel star Jay Hernandez.
Will all five survive?
Judging from the extremely savage scenes we saw being filmed that day, it's not likely. The main characters are in a room they believe to be safe… but when they decide to venture out and see what's in the elevator (apparently, Carpenter's reporter is of the investigative sort), they get a nasty surprise.
The action is intense, and while looking at the monitors in "video village" (the director's and producer's headquarters, just off-set) while they're shooting, I can already predict that I'll need to be Dramamined after seeing Quarantine on the big screen. Shot in a shaky-cam style that's liable to rock, rattle and roll Neal Fredericks right out of his grave, it's far from a smooth shoot. Yet, it makes sense: the conceit of the film is that everything seen through the lens of the crew's camera. No time for tripods.
Carpenter, Hernandez and Jones finish, and rush immediately to video village after Dowdle calls "Cut!" They are glittered with sweat, winded and clearly adrenaline pumped. It's unusual to see actors so uniformly interested in watching playback.
Carpenter, only barely breathless due to her extremely sinewy, well-sculpted physique, bursts with childlike excitement (that is, if the child was one of the Devil's Rejects): "Fuck, yes!" She titters. "Fuck. Oh my god. Oh my god. Yes, yes! Fuck, yes!"
They continue to watch their frenetic skirmish intently. Someone exclaims, "Oh, look. I almost bit you there!"
That pretty much sums up the heady vibe on-set, but our Q&A's with the actors and filmmakers are more informative:
Drew Dowdle (Producer)
Robert Hall (Special Makeup Effects)
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by Staci Layne Wilson