Quarantine and Societal Fears Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Quarantine and Societal Fears - Essay Example The essay "Quarantine and Societal Fears" describes the plot of an American horror film "Quarantine" released in 2008. The paper analyses the film contexts and all the known facts about this it to find out the purpose of the film and the reason this film is placed in the horror genre. The plot of the film centers around a news anchor and her cameraman, who are shadowing two firemen for their night piece. The team gets called out to an apartment building because the apartment manager reported hearing screams from the building. From here, it is evident that many of the residents of the building have rabies-like symptoms such as ‘fever’ and a change in the eyes, as evidenced by the question 'What happened to her eyes?'. The overall argument of the film is that an outbreak of a deadly disease is always a possibility within society. There are many different contexts in which the film Quarantine can be placed which help to explain why "Quarantine" is placed in the horror genre. Biological warfare is an imminent threat and one of the most terrifying of all weapons. One of the main reasons biological warfare haunts the minds of many is that it may lead to a slow and painful death and that if the condition it causes is incurable, the outbreak may be impossible to stop. Infectious disease is no longer the biggest killer in the Western world, and this perhaps is what makes it so terrifying. The film also plays on many other common types of fear, such as being isolated from society, old or 'spooky' buildings, the dark and having a lack of information.