quarantine Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Okay, so I've never been much for the company of kids. which may make me extra-susceptible when it comes to the evil deeds and manipulations of a perfectly precious child on-screen. It's an easy button to push, though -- after all, who would ever suspect, let alone harm a vengeful little moppet?

None of that appeal escapes tomorrow's release, Orphan, and it certainly isn't the first time that horror and horseplay have mixed on film. While I'm tempted to include that little girl from [REC] (and also Quarantine, I suppose) for giving me the willies, I won't because she wasn't the chief antagonist, and the only reason I'm leaving Children of the Corn off the list is, well, I haven't actually seen that yet. And although it doesn't hit Stateside shelves until this October, keep an eye out for the very tense import, The Children.

But worry not: even with the exceptions, there's certainly no shortage of other brats to choose from.

[REC]
If you saw Quarantine and thought, 'Hey, that wasn't so bad,' have I got a movie for you! The best moments of the Hollywood remake were all done first (and better) in the Spanish original, which is more intense, more grueling, and more graphic. (Scott Weinberg and William Goss agree with me.) A light-hearted news reporter accompanies firefighters on a routine call that quickly turns deadly when they're trapped in an apartment building with something far more terrifying than burning furniture. Buy it.

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The Haunting in Connecticut
If you like your horror much less intense, this haunted house tale is more spooky than scary. Supposedly "based on true events," Virginia Madsen stars as the mother of a very sick teenage boy who comes to regret her decision to rent a place with an unsavory past. It offers no big surprises (as William Goss scoffed), but I thought it trod familiar territory with a fresh eye. Available as a Single-Disc Edition, Unrated Special Edition, and on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Horsemen
Dennis Quaid stars as a cop on the trail of a serial killer somehow inspired by the Biblical 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.' With Zhang Ziyi and Lou Taylor Pucci. Horsemen received only a token theatrical release from Lionsgate, which isn't a good sign, but possibly in its favor: the cast, the very Seven-ish premise, and the lack of much else new. Rent it.

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Also out: Mad Men: Season 2, The State: The Complete Series, Grey Gardens, Van Wilder: Freshman Year - Unrated, The Bracelet of Bordeaux.

After the jump: Keira Knightley, Blu skycraper on fire.

Okay, so for months and months, we've yammered on about the merits of [REC], the Spanish-language horror flick that inspired the moderately successful Quarantine, and how we'd yet to see a proper domestic release of it (with Canadian retailers coming to the rescue in that regard).

Well, worry no more, all two of you that held out, because Sony's home entertainment department has seen fit to release the movie this July 14th, according to Fangoria and DVD Active. Apparently, the movie will come with a single making-of featurette, though I find the inclusion of an English-language dub track a bit superfluous in the wake of the (virtually) identical remake.

I haven't been able to check out Quarantine yet on home video, though I hear that the commentary track by the filmmakers makes no mention of this film, but does name-check their previous work, The Poughkeepsie Tapes, which has still yet to hit shelves. Maybe they'll get it out once they're done remaking [REC] 2...

When we were kicking around ideas for year-end superlative Cinematical Sevens, I was proudly tasked with chronicling the year's finest in big-screen mayhem, violence, destruction and other such shenanigans. When I was kicking around ideas for said feature between me, myself, and I, there were too many titles to leave off the list, so instead of highlighting only a mere couple of movies, I've opted to sort these puppies out by specific manner of cinematic excess.

So there.

1. Most pervasive destruction - The Joker may have terrorized Gotham to the tune of a destroyed hospital, a wrecked helicopter, a sunken SWAT truck, a toasty fire engine, and a golden district attorney, but even he can't top the Cloverfield monster's swath of destruction across the real-life Gotham. Statue of Liberty? Gone. Brooklyn Bridge? History. Central Park? Adios. And that's not including all the Hollister stores that our protagonists might've fled to. (On a smaller scale, though, Inside's lady in black terrorizes a pregnant woman on Christmas Eve to the point of all but painting every last wall in her house with the blood of her victims. Gotta love the French!)

There have been a number of moderate- to high-profile box office fizzles in the past few weeks -- 'tis the season, I suppose, though the flop ratio seems higher than average this year -- and this week adds a couple more to the list. First and most surprising is the tepid performance of Body of Lies, which couldn't leverage the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, or Ridley Scott to open to more than $13 million. I don't really get it: the marketing was action-packed and fairly ubiquitous (though a bit confusing -- people apparently had trouble deciphering the trailer), and I thought the star wattage would do more for the film. (On the other hand, Scott's A Good Year, which also starred Crowe, died an even harder death.) Is anything involving Iraq or the Middle East really that much of a turn-off right now? Or maybe anything perceived as serious? It's really a superb film, and one that benefits from the big screen; you should check it out before it vanishes.

Another addition to the list of big fat flops is Fox's City of Ember, which crashed and burned at number ten (10). I haven't seen it yet, but I'm a big, big fan of Gil Kenan's debut Monster House, and so was rooting for Ember. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone knew that it existed. The football drama The Express doesn't count as a flop, I don't think, since no one expected it to do much better than it did: $4.7 million in sixth place. People just couldn't bring themselves to care about this story again, though the movie isn't bad.

The weekend's hits were exercises in escapist frivolity, which might support one of my hypotheses regarding Body of Lies' failure. Beverly Hills Chihuahua held on to the top spot with $17.5 million, ensuring a sequel. And the low-budget Quarantine took second in a huge victory for Screen Gems -- a $14 million opening for a movie like this is gold.

The full list of estimates after the jump.

As far as Hollywood's reliably tepid horror output is concerned, Quarantine works as every bit the disposable jolt dispenser it's assembled to be. It's got a nifty enough concept in its favor and a mildly recognizable cast that needs not fear any characterization coming between them and certain death by the time the credits roll, and it's hard to believe that there's not at least one sequence in here that might get even the most cynical horror fan's heart rate to rise a beat or two -- and I say this as a documented fan of the (still superior) source material.

Young news reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman (Steve Harris) are covering a Los Angeles fire station during their nightly routines when the two tag along on an emergency call to an apartment building. Not terribly long after their arrival, all hell breaks loose and the building's occupants -- Angela included -- find themselves contained within against their will and left to fend off a dangerous virus that causes the infected to become a rabid zombie variant, one aggressively determined to spread the love around.

Despite having previously established my feelings about this weekend's Quarantine, I must confess a new willingness to give it a fair shot later tonight. Regardless, this week's Cinematical Seven is all about first-person horror movies, with a couple of oh-so-subjective stipulations:

• We're leaving The Blair Witch Project (1999) out of this. It might not have been the first of these movies, but it was undeniably the most successful and influential. There are only seven slots here, and I feel like everyone has already made clear whether they find this scary or just stupid (I fall in the former grouping, though I say this having not seen the flick since my teens). If you still feel the need to take BWP to task, comment away.
• Also omitted will be The Last Broadcast (1998), which drew mild controversy at the time of its release for its similarity to Blair Witch. I'm only not writing about it because the copy of it sitting just over on my shelf here has remained unwatched. My bad.
• The previous film by the guys behind Quarantine is The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007), which -- being in the hands of the Weinsteins -- has not yet seen the light of day beyond a couple of festivals. Having not attended any of said festivals myself, I'll just sit here and guess that it'll get dumped to DVD (probably under the Dimension Extreme label), and not any earlier than next year at that.

Now, on with the list...

Despite having six new wide releases last week, only Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist cracked the top five. In its third week of release, Appaloosa expanded into an additional 1,031 theaters, allowing it to take the number five spot. Here's the top five.

1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua: $29.3 million
2. Eagle Eye: $17.7 million
3. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist: $11.3 million
4. Nights in Rodanthe: $7.3 million
5. Appaloosa: $5 million

Body of Lies
What's It All About: In this Ridley Scott film, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a CIA agent tracking terrorist activity in Jordan, with Russell Crowe playing the veteran agent who helps him infiltrate the terrorist underground.
Why It Might Do Well: This film reteams DiCaprio with William Monahan, the screenwriter behind The Departed, and the flick is sporting a 70% fresh rating at rottentomatoes.com.
Why It Might Not Do Well: This being an election year, there are already enough lies kicking around.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $26 million

Every generation needs its own (emotionally) tortured teen horror movies. I had Brian DePalma's Carrie; will The Haunting of Molly Hartley be the torchbearer for the current generation? Err, hard to say, judging by the trailer MTV has unveiled. Molly Hartley has the religious nutjob mother, the cute caring boy (Chace Crawford), and a blond nemesis for our bruised brunette heroine (Haley Bennett), but we'll have to wait until October 31 to see if debuting director Mickey Liddell can deliver genuine thrills and chills. It doesn't bode well that the trailer fairly screams PG-13.

At least Molly Hartley will be shown in theaters. Despite Scott Weinberg's well-reasoned and thoroughly researched note to Lionsgate, it looks like Gregg Bishop's great Dance of the Dead will still be heading straight to DVD on October 20. While you rail at the heavens and place your pre-orders, take a moment and check out the age-restricted trailer that IGN has posted. Consider the trailer a true tease, in that it gives you just a hint at how funny, gory, and clever Dance of the Dead is in its feature-length glory.

Scott has also raved about the Spanish horror flick [REC], which has been remade into Quarantine, due out on October 10. William Goss echoed Scott's praise for the original, while slamming the remake's trailer. Well, [REC] directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza told Fangoria that they aren't too happy their film wasn't even given a chance in American theaters. Plaza said: "I would prefer them to release our movie as an art-house film in the U.S., and not to make a fool of themselves by copying it." Love that brutal European honesty!

Which film are you most excited about?

Our Comic Con came to a sweet finish last night at the Wrath of Con mega party hosted by folks like IESB, Bloody-Dee and Lakeshore. The roof at the Hard Rock Hotel here in San Diego was packed with writers, celebrities, dancers, rock stars and girls with tape on their boobs. It was a pretty fun night, and since the Crank 2 trailer screened at one point, the whole thing is a write off! While our tired Cinematical crew travels home today, here's a bunch of stuff to keep you busy till we come back tomorrow with the remainder of our coverage, including a very cool interview with James Gunn and our annual "Celebrities Love Weinberg" gallery.

• Disney debuted a teaser thingy for Pixar's Up, which will hit theaters next summer.
  
• The Terminator: Salvation panel was a blast, McG came out pumped and the extended trailer looked awesome. We'll have more from the panel and our interviews, but a couple things: The next trailer will debut with Quantum of Solace, it's not a definite PG-13 at this time (they have the studio's blessing should it turn into an R-rated affair), the film will end on a cliffhanger, the Con poster is to the right and a model of the T-600 is above, and, finally, watching Yelchin (as a young Kyle Reese) say "Come with me if you want to live" in the trailer gave me goosebumps.
  
• AICN tells us that Punisher: War Zone director Lexi Alexander has been booted from the film. She didn't show here at Con because she was on her "honeymoon," and she's wrapped up in a non-disclosure which means she ain't talking either. Why can't anyone make a Punisher flick without f**king it up? Is it really that hard to get one right?
• John Campea interviewing the girls from Bitch Slap in their hotel room ... in bed with them ... has to go down as THE interview at Con. Special Cinematical props go out to the entire team from Bitch Slap for marketing the hell out of their film at Con, guerilla-style throughout the entire weekend.
• Sam Raimi told the audience during his Drag Me to Hell panel that he's considering an Evil Dead 4.
  
• EW has a whole slew of photos from Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
• Watchmen website now online. I'll be reading this as soon as I get home.
• Moviefone has some great preview and wrap up posts, along with even more galleries.
• Francis Lawrence making prequel to I Am Legend starring Will Smith.
• Who's buying this Heath Ledger as the Joker bobblehead doll?
• Finally, IGN has debuted a red band trailer for Quarantine.

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