Quarantine

Before I start to discuss my first movie, I will tell you a little about myself. My name is Niki Habbe. I’m a senior at SIU, graduating this semester with a degree in Psychology. My interest in human nature plays an important role when I watch and analyze movies. I tend to concentrate more prevalently on the characters of the film, and how the character choices that are made for each actor effects the plot. I will pay specific attention to how gender, race and economic status are portrayed through the characters in each film.

I watched Quarantine, a horror movie. The plot of this movie is that a cameraman and reporter shadow firemen to a call about a sick lady. Once inside the apartment complex, it becomes obvious that there is a rabies-like infection spreading through the occupants. All of the characters are sealed inside (quarantined) and they proceed to one by one become infected and kill each other.

Quarantine was filmed through the eyes of a cameraman character. This style of horror film became popular after The Blaire Witch Project was released. It is indented to make viewers feel uneasy, as their view of the movie is usually somewhat limited. This was the case in Quarantine. The cameraman’s light flashed on and off, often with zombie-like people popping out to grab the actors.

I felt that this movie exhibits many of the stereotypes that horror films are prone to. The majority of the film took place in a low-income apartment complex. No one seems to care that the lives of these occupants will be lost if the quarantine continues. Many of the occupants die quickly because they do not speak English. These characters are made to seem stupid, as if they wouldn’t understand to run if someone was trying to eat them… The reporter in this movie was a young, pretty female. She was incapable of making decisions without the help of a fireman or her cameraman. Her feebleness resulted in the deaths of many of the other characters. I also felt that racial stereotypes were prominent in the policeman character. He was conveyed as the “angry black man” whose rash decisions and disregard for the other people quarantined resulted in many deaths.

I think that until horror movies can move past using gender, racial and economic stereotypes, that the genre will continue to release films that viewers are disappointed after seeing.