Quarantine 2 Terminal (2011)

On the same night as the events portrayed in the original Quarantine an airplane takes off from Los Angeles.  But they bring the infection that turns normal people into homicidal maniacs with them.  After the first passenger loses his mind the plane lands at an airport and is locked down.  One passenger after another falls victim to the disease and then turns on the uninfected.  Their only hope is to find a way out of the quarantine that now surrounds the terminal that they have been isolated in. 

A direct to DVD sequel to a found footage movie that I thought was okay at best.  Honestly I wasn’t looking forward to this one at all.  But this is why I request review copies.  Quarantine 2 is shot as a traditional movie without all the found footage nonsense, which is a nice change.  The story is solid and moves the narrative along quickly and efficiently.  The story ties into the first movie without spending too much time or effort doing so.  You can watch this sequel without ever having seen the original.  There is something to be said for a movie that wastes no time and gives the audience what we expect. 

And since I mentioned getting what we expect I’d have to say that the characters are typical for this kind of horror flick.  But instead of being boring this lends a comfortable feel to the movie.  We know who is going to meet a bad end, now we just get to enjoy the trip.  Though I don’t think they played it up enough with the character with the germ phobia (I was expecting more drama from him) it was still fun.  And as the final credits rolled I have to say that I did enjoy it.  Oh and the ending to this movie sets up another sequel in a clever way with a setting that put a smile on my face. 

We get some cheap jump scares that while predictable worked.  The camera work is nice and the lighting is good.  As I’ve already mentioned this is a traditional movie and not one using “found” footage.  This means we don’t get much of the shaky camera work.  The look of the infected is very basic, but mostly all practical effect work.  Sometimes simple works and with this movie that is the case.  The kills aren’t graphic and we don’t’ get much firearm mayhem.  So that is different then we got in the original Quarantine.  Then again they used so much CGI in that movie that even the bullet hits were sort of lame.  So less is better when it comes to this franchise. 

Not sure what else I can say about this one.  It is your basic creature feature with survivors trying not to become infected.  We have all seen this movie a hundred times, but when done as well as it is here the movie can be entertaining.  Though I don’t see myself watching it again I found it to be worth killing an hour and a half.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer