A
television reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer
Carpenter) decides to do a fun documentary
project with her camera man and goes to a Los
Angeles fire station lead by the marshall
Scott Percival (Steve Harris) in which they
travel to an apartment complex that was sealed
off by the government and the residents were
never seen again without any witnesses or
evidence.
They think this might be a great opportunity to
unravel this unsolved mystery as they are
assigned to this nightshift after a 911 call and
receive some blood curdling screams from one of
the buildings by a resident Mrs. Espinoza
(Jeannie Epper) who has been infected by some
sort of an unknown disease that makes her attack
and try to kill.
After
a few of the residents are viciously attacked,
they try to escape with the news crew in tow,
only to find that the CDC has quarantined the
building with their phones, internet, televisions
and cell phones cut off and officials are not
relaying information to those locked inside.
The quarantine gets lifted and Angela shows
evidence on her camera when she tries to struggle
from this madness as even the fire marshall's are
getting this disease and killing one another.
The story tries to start the film off by making it funny
with Angela Vidal as the host of
her found footage flick trying to get it right without
traffic sounds before entering a firestation but
it looks very flat.
There was an interesting look at her going into a
locker room at the work station with Scott Percival showing her around and the others
goofing off.
There was a good impression at first with her and
the others playing firemen going to a
room in a building and trying to talk to someone
along with a nice reaction on someone acting insane and losing it by having
rabies but the shots on her attack scene's bit
the big one as it's hard to know what's going on.
We have a fairly good conversation between Angela and a child being
interviewed which looked more natural than the
other scene's in this movie and probably the
best moment of all.
A good shot on this child attacking
reacting to her rabies with the camera slamming
into her face to knock her out.
There's another good shot on her attacking but
again afterwards the camera jiggles too much and
the scene looks very dark afterwards.
We spot a good shot on someone injecting a needle in George Fletcher's head with a great
disturbing reaction on Angela which
leaves an impression.
Many shots on people running around in
the building but the camera is not well focused
and it looks dark as usual.
We have a last scene with Angela alone with a green light shining on her which is
the worst moment of all cause you don't see
what is going on or why this is happening but she
does well acting hysterical.
Bottom line is that this is a rip off on all those found footage horrors like Blair Witch Project and Diary of the
Dead trying to use the same chemistry
but it looks very amateurish, difficult to watch
with the camera always jiggling as well as
filming in the dark and annoying helicopter
sounds which often drowns out the dialogues.
It was widely advertised during it's theatrical
run and had mixed reviews but once you watch this
film it is easily forgettable.
It does start off as a bad comedy almost and when
you expect for the best it almost starts off
right but then turns into a total disaster.
The acting is in fair shape as Jennifer
Carpenter (Angela Vidal) brings out as much as she can with
her character trying to act witty at first but
that looked a little phony. However, she does
great on her intesnity and screaming with nice
fearful expressions too.
Steve Harris (Scott Percival) is not too bad as her sidekick
fire marshall showing good aggressive attitude to
his part when the terrors are about to happen.
Johnathon
Schaech (George Fletcher) seems fairly impressive after
getting the rabies looking like a dangerous
looking zombie. There's a good reaction on him acting like this when he is diagnosed with it.
Child actress Joey King (Briana) has a small role
in this film as a child with rabies but deserves
to be mentioned in this turkey in which she
reacts well behaving normal and then going into a
terrifying rage.
A rat is stomped on
Some bitten legs and other parts on various
people
No
music folks just annoying helicopter sounds.
|