I want to find out if there is a name for the style of cinematography where the entire film takes the form of “raw” footage shot from a single camera operated by one of the characters in the film, who happens to be in the thick of the action. If it lacks a name, I would like to suggest “cheap-ass cop-out suck.”

For those of you who read my review of Cloverfield, you will know that my wife and I went to see it, and hated it.

Unlike Cloverfield, the character who operated the camera in Quarantine is a professional TV cameraman, presumably using a one-piece HD camera of the type now in vogue. He and a reporter for a Los Angles TV News Magazine show are spending a couple of days tailing the men of LA Fire Company 22. The first half hour of the movie establishes this, with bits of B-roll, random clips of the firefighters between calls, some intro video and interviews with the firefighters. It is mildly entertaining, but not what horror film fans came to see. As all of the footage was shot by a “professional,” it is stable, steady, good-quality footage, save for the fact that it is somewhat dimmed to give it a “video” feel as required by the plot.

When the action starts, however, the camerawork goes totally to hell. As with Cloverfield, it becomes such a frenetic, sensory-overload of a roller-coaster ride that you can’t actually follow the action. The gore and effects may have been very good, but we couldn’t tell for sure.

When we went to see Cloverfield, I noticed that some parties got up and left before the film was over. That happened with this film, also, except that this time, we were amongst them. My recommendation: skip it. Wait for a movie shot by professionals who understand that the camera should be an external, impartial observer.