Last January Bloody-Disgusting visited the set of Sony Screen Gems’ R-rated horror film, Quarantine, which arrives in theaters everywhere this Friday. While on set we had the opportunity to chat with star Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter, Exorcism of Emily Rose), who chatted with us about the difficulties of shooting the film, the real-life terrors in the plot and how she got to watch other people get their hands wet this time around. You can read it all inside. In addition, if you click over to BDTV, you can now watch a behind-the-scenes featurette, alongside the three clips we added last week.
Carpenter is no newbie to Sony Screen Gems as she starred in one of their most successful horror film, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, which is how she got the early jump on the role in QUARANTINE.

“I worked with Clint Culpepper who was producing on “Emily Rose”, so he sent the script over and sent the original over, and I turned on the original, watched maybe two or three minutes of it and called and said, ‘yeah, I want to do it.’ ”

In the film arriving in theaters October 10th, Carpenter plays television reporter Angela Vidal, who becomes locked in an apartment complex during a routine call with the Los Angeles Fire Department.

QUARANTINE is a remake of the Spanish horror flick [REC] and brings something new to the genre.

“I’m not sure that it will reinvent the genre,” Carpenter explains to Bloody-Disgusting on the set back in November of 2007. “It’s certainly a brand new way of making films. I mean, it’s 3 o’clock, we’ve all been here since 7 and haven’t gotten off with our shot yet. You’re shooting four pages in one take, so it happens a lot like real life happens. There are dead spaces you fill and you start “improving”, and you have to be completely awake and aware and listening in a way that is not as forgiving as when you’re stopping, coming in and doing coverage…. we aren’t that planned.”

The fact that there are extremely long takes and a lot of room for improv make QUARANTINE a difficult film to shoot. Carpenter explains that it was also one of her hardest roles.

“In a strange way, yeah [it’s the hardest role], especially after coming off from “Dexter” where it’s about pacing a day as well as pacing the story,” she continues, “This is about patience. In a lot of ways, it feels like I ran cross-country the night before the race; all the way up until the gun goes off, you have this adrenaline going and you’re telling your body “wait, wait, wait,” and then the gun goes off and you say, “Go!” It feels a lot like that. It’s a hard nerve to calm down, to control.”

In EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE Carpenter got her hands pretty dirty in the role of a girl possessed. In QUARANTINE, she gets to watch others jump in the dirt.

“I love it because people sometimes come up to me and say that ‘Emily Rose’ scared them and that they lost sleep, and I apologize for my part in it, but this is exciting because this is closer to me and my life,” she explains. “I really get freaked out by this stuff. The whole last scene in [Quarantine] happens in one room, and I’ve asked to not be allowed in that room. I don’t want to meet anybody that’s going to be in the room, because it will be authentic. I’m going to be scared out of my mind. Everybody looks sweet and warm out here, but they’re going to turn it on and I’m going to be terrified.”

It’s pretty terrifying that, hypothetically, this story could happen…

“The scary thing about it is that they are locked in this building-normal people like you and me, and I’m assuming you are normal-but their rescue is right outside of a window pane. It is two stories down, and they can’t get out. They’re fighting for their lives, and their salvation is right outside the door…”

You’ll be able to see everything through Carpenter’s eyes when the film arrives in theaters October 10.