Blog Post Week 3 #5: Film adaptation for a U.S. market

When talking about film industries you think about the Hollywood’s, the Bollywood’s and Nigeria’s Nollywood. Hollywood is seen as the pioneer with other film industries producing remakes of specific films that have been a success. An example of this is Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’ remade in Bollywood as ‘Ghajini’ (a film I highly recommend to watch). This initiative can be flipped with Hollywood copying from other industries. This is seen in John Erick Dowdle’s ‘Quarantine’, the Hollywood remake of the Spanish film ‘REC’. Both films have similar storylines which follow a news reporter who reports from the scene of where the fire fighters are required; both films have a vicious woman who holds the fire team and the reporter along with her cameraman in hostage.

The films reporters are both female (Not shown in the REC trailer) and are both curious to find out what is happening in the situation. It is remarkable and shows a sense of bravery that isn’t often credited in films. However females are seen as the victims as shown in this film too which may cause controversy. Regardless of their gender, whoever the reporter was they would have been caught anyway. In other trailers the reporters start off with enthusiasm, almost as if they are privileged to be reporting the scene. At the end of the trailer the feeling and emotion is the opposite to what was seen at the beginning of the trailer. 

The cameramen is not seen in the trailer, therefore the focus is fully on the situation allowing the audience to feel as if they are there in the scene. This adds to the realism of the film. Another factor of realism is the shakiness of the footage. The audience is following each and every step of the film that they can associate with the characters. The effect adds that authentic sense to it almost as if it isn’t scripted, enticing the audience in and receiving the shock they will encounter throughout the films.

Both trailers make the viewer jump which is one of the prime factors of a horror film. Quarantine does well to illustrate the situation whereas the original REC makes you wonder what on earth is happening. REC seems more natural whereas Quarantine has that scripted feel towards it. Overall both films do a great job in producing great films. It invites more film makers to create remakes and do an equally good job as the original. What this also suggests is that, not only is the US great at producing films but also other industries are as talented. It is common to think that other industries copy Hollywood but that isn’t the case as seen in REC and Quarantine.