I hate this film


So one day I saw a low-budget spanish horror film called REC that really, deeply affected me. I rank it as one of my favourite horror films of all time. Then, just a few months later, out comes an American remake. "Oh well, we all know most american audiences are too lazy or stupid to read subtitles, so it was inevitable that something like this would happen considering how good the film is", I thought to myself. "At least this way they'll attract a bit of extra attention to the original from people who might otherwise never have heard of it".
how wrong I was, they threw so much money at the marketing that once it came out I saw no advertising for the original's DVD release or the sequel, I only ever saw adverts for "quarantine" and they never mentioned anywhere on any of the advertising that it was a remake.
Then I actually watched the film (illegally for free, I might add, I'm not spending any money on this turd) and its just a shot-for-shot remake with the only thing they changed being the ending and somehow they managed to turn that from the best part of the film into a boring anti-climax (Rabies is not scarier than demonic possession, idiots!)
So, to sum up: Small spanish studio makes breakout horror film that does some business and gains much critical praise for being a genuinely scary and inventive film. Immediately after that an American company comes along and makes an almost identical copy of the same film with worse actors and a rubbish ending which then vastly outsells the original which most people who go to see this film will never even have heard of.
God, I hate the film industry.

reply

Well, they are both available on-demand now so that should vindicate you: people can give it views which leads to advertising revenue and they can of course watch both versions in the horror film popular Halloween season.

No, I'm laughing with you not at{against} you!

reply

I think the hatred for this movie is very pretentious and uncalled for. I like Rec better, but Quarantine is in some ways actually better than Rec. In Quarantine:

-The film is darker than Rec, which is cool
-The fire station bit was better and had a bit of jokes too
-The zombies also look frightening in Quarantine
-Quarantine is gorier
-People looked sicker than in Rec
-In Quarantine you actually get to learn about the disease
-The way everyone was sealed in Quarantine was so much more savage than Rec
-Like Rec, the acting was absolutely phenomenal

However, I like Rec more because of the camera's framerate, its solidness made the movie feel much more realistic, Quarantine felt a bit more staged because of the camera's slower framerate. The other reason I like Rec more was because of the infected girl in the attic, she's SO much scarier than the infected man in Quarantine. Really people, what's the matter with you? Yes, you have the superior Spanish original, and we also have the shot-for-shot American remake. Get over yourselves.

reply

Thank you for such an accurate and well written post. I agree 100%. I come to the REC and Quarantine boards to see what other fans of the films have to say and I've ended up having to wade through post after post saying the same formulaic things about lazy Americans and how Quarantine is such a vastly inferior film despite being, for the most part, the same thing.

There are differences to be sure and those should be celebrated for giving us slightly different perspectives of a well done horror idea. Instead you have people fighting over who can claim love one and hate the other and giving simplistic nitpicky reasons.

The truth is they are similar enough that if you love one you should really at least like the other.

reply

Personally, I will admit that I've not seen [Rec], and I can also admit that due to the subtitles, I probably never will. It's got nothing to do with being too lazy to read (I'm actually an avid reader), it has to do with missing things visually because I'm busy reading subs. I distinctly remember seeing Iron Monkey in theatres, and not really enjoying it, and then watching a dubbed version later on and loving it because I was finally able to fully visually enjoy the movie.

As I have nothing to compare Quarantine to, I have to say that I thought it was a fairly well done movie. I'm also glad that they didn't go the spiritual/demonic route in terms of explaining what was happening to people.

I think if you want to direct your anger towards anyone, you should direct it to the original production studio that sold the rights and gave the greenlight to the American to make what you see as a *beep* remake.

"You're going to need a bigger boat." - Chief Brody

reply

I agree, remake totally unnecessary. Spanish girl way hotter too, casting a less attractive lead, what were they thinking?! Of course the original would be better.

reply