Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) Review

Airports and hospitals, both locations you could rather do without on holidays. Sure hospitals can be avoided if you’re lucky, but boring stuffy airports are a necessary evil of holiday making.
But what if you spent your time at the airport quarantine 2 terminal 2011 dvd coverbeing harassed by sweaty frothing ghouls hungry for your blood rather than sweaty frothing customs officials after your concealed marmite? For answers to this question and more watch Quarantine 2: Terminal!

The plot here is simple. On the way out of LAX a small passenger jet is forced to return following one of the travelers becoming violently ill, projectile vomiting all over the place.
As the plane begins its descent, the sick man takes an extremely funny turn, frothing at the mouth and going after the cabin crew as if they are a tasty ploughman’s lunch. After restraining this rather large and now insatiably hungry character and landing the plane, the remaining travelers must look for help. But they find the airport deserted and all exits locked. They have been quarantined!

Quarantine 2: Terminal begins a different direction for what appears to be an attempt to start a franchise. Quarantine was a shot-for-shot remake of the Spanish horror REC and is told via hand held ‘found’ footage. This installment bears no resemblance to this presentation style opting for a more traditional camera set up. It also bears no relation to REC 2.

A nice feature of this sequel is how it neatly ties in with the first Quarantine film. The events of that film are occurring as the events of this scenario are played out. We see news reports of the outbreak in the L.A. apartment block and those passengers who haven’t made the connection soon figure things out as their plague crazed fellow travellers launch themselves at them, all blood and froth.

Quarantine 2 terminal movie 2011 quarantine 2

The actors all perform admirably and surprisingly for a horror film, have their heads screwed on. The last thing you need when you’re trapped in a building is to be surrounded by fat headed idiots with not one iota of common sense between them. Fortunately the characters here are not complete dunderheads. Sure, one or two of them could do with an IQ injection, but most of the cast don’t go wandering off on their own, succumbing to a gruesome death that could have otherwise been easily avoided.
It is refreshing to sit through a film like this without clenching my fists, gnashing my teeth or rolling my eyes at the stupidity of victims who simply must rescue snuffles the cat from the dark crevice he’s just gamboled off into. While the cast portray realistic reactions to the unraveling crisis, we do have to put up with a Justin Beiber look-a-like. You just can’t win them all.

Quarantine 2: Terminal can be a little heavy handed. It begins by throwing about a whole host of possible culprits of the impending viral crisis. I found this a little unnecessary as we all know what’s about to happen. I don’t really care whether it’s caused by a man with a cold, a cat, some gerbils or a chap with a nasty case of the clap (unsubstantiated).
Fortunately all is made a little clearer towards the end, but when the whole picture is revealed it lacks any real impact and falls a little flat. It’s an interesting angle and it’s disappointing it didn’t get the more thorough exploration it deserved.

Quarantine 2 terminal 2011 film

This sequel is sadly a case of same thing, different location.
There are two main problems here. Being a sequel of a remake it lacks any real impact. REC was an effective and claustrophobic experience packed with tension. The remake looked to replicate this feeling. With Quarantine 2: Terminal you know what to expect and sadly nothing new is brought to the table. New story elements are introduced, but as mentioned earlier, this seems too much of an afterthought and is not explored effectively.
My other complaint is the setting. The film starts in an airplane and then moves to the warehouse loading bay of the airport. You just can’t do all that much with an airplane, and a small one at that, as a setting, hence the decision to move the action elsewhere. But arguably the loading bay is worse. It’s too expansive and well lit (despite the obvious power cut). It just lacks the tension and closeness of the REC films.

I was also a little annoyed by the re-introduction of night-vision harking back to the source material. It’s almost as if the guys behind the film felt obliged to include it. It serves no purpose here. Just eat carrots.

The end of the film hints at more to come and there are seeds of potential that could be developed further.
It’s clear that anyone thinking of continuing the franchise needs to put a great deal of thought into it as there is a danger that this could just turn into a sequence of generic and lifeless (smirk) zombie outbreak movies.

Movie Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

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The Baron

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