This document summarizes and compares the Spanish film Rec (2007) and its American remake Quarantine (2008). It discusses how Rec was produced by the small Spanish company Filmax, while Quarantine had backing from the major studio Screen Gems. It also examines how Screen Gems took advantage of the popularity of the found footage horror genre and trends in filmmaking at the time to quickly produce and distribute Quarantine. Additionally, it explores how remakes and distributing related films simultaneously can create synergies that increase profits.

1. The films I will be covering in this essay are Rec, (Jaume Balaguero, 2007), and the remake
Quarantine, (John Eric Dowdle, 2008), and looking at how successful Rec was just from a Spanish
independent company called Filmax, how a bigger distributor took advantage of this trend. I will also
be looking at original movies such as, Karate Kid and War of the Worlds and why companies have
made remakes, I will be looking at the trends, (computer, gaming, reality, TV, apps, etc).
Furthermore, I will be looking at horizontal and vertical integration and synergy, (why Rec and
Quarantine were distributed around the same time. As well as Cloverfield and Diary of the dead
were released at the same time.
Name Rec Quarantine
Director(s) Jaume Balaguero John Eric Dowdle
Paco Plaza
Year of production 2007 2008
Producer(s) Manuela Velasco Doug Davison
Ferrán Terraza Roy Lee
Jorge-Yamam Serrano Sergio Aguero
Pablo Rosso Carlos Fernández
David Vert Julio Fernández[
Vicente Gil Clint Culpepper
Martha Carbonell
Carlos Vicente
María Teresa Ortega
Manuel Bronchud
Akemi Goto
Chen Min Kao
Maria Lanau
Claudia Silva
Javier Botet
Ben Temple
Carlos Lasarte
Cast, (main roles) Manuela Velasco Jennifer Carpenter
Ferran Terraza Steve Harris
Jorge-Yamam serrano Columbus short
Distributor Filmax Screen Gems
Country of origin Spain United States
Budget €1,500,000 $12 million
Box office takings $32,492,948 $41,319,906
The differences bet the two films are that Rec was made by a small independent Spanish film
company, (called Filmax), whereas Quarantine was made by a larger company, (called screen gems),
this is owned by Sony Entertainment Pictures and Sony is known as a house hold brand for
televisions, cameras/camcorders, etc so a film like this is likely to be heard about.

2. Jaume Balagoro’s rationale for making REC in a handheld, documentary style was that he wanted the
audience to be more involved into the story and tell the horror story in the best way possible, he
wanted the audience to come closer to the horror and feel as if they were part of it all. He wanted
the film screen to look like a kind of video game style; this may be because video games are popular
in today’s society.
Both Cloverfield and Diary of Dead were released at the same time but the makers of REC, (Filmax),
didn’t notice that similar processed films were being released until they had finished filming; this
was coincidental but worried the makers of REC, (Filmax). They think that the reason these films had
a similar process because of the way the world is developing in this day and age, which allows films
to change in a way the audience prefers. This gave the style and process of film a high demand from
the audience.
Screen Gems distributed Quarantine as quickly as they could for many reasons, one was that this
style of movie was a trend and they wanted to release it whilst there was still hype about. Also a
remake of a very successful movie would be advertised well and people would spread word by
mouth saying things such as, ‘did you hear that (Sony), Screen Gems is remaking that amazing movie
Rec? We should go and watch it when it comes out’, etc.
Furthermore, a remake would lead to synergy when Quarantine was released on DVD/Blu-Ray,
meaning that they could sell the two separate films as a box set/special edition, etc , this would
increase sales as people would buy both as collectors or to see one/both of the films because of its
reputation.
Also with Screen Gems being a subsidiary of Sony, they bought the rights to Rec and were then able
to use this to their advantage to make a synergy, (with the rights to Rec, they were able to make box
sets, etc)
Evidence people want to see the remake

3. Screen Gems, (Sony), took advantage of the remake and also made an online Flash game for it which
is another way they used synergy, all of this synergy and buying the rights to Rec is horizontal
integration.
The other type of integration is vertical, Sony have done this with Quarantine, it is when the
company has done everything, Sony had Screen Gems and have produced, distributed and exhibited
Quarantine doing all this equals profit via vertical integration.
The film industry has quite a few remakes, these include, War of the worlds, Karate Kid, Nightmare
on Elm Street, Charlie and the chocolate factory, King Kong, Planet of the apes, etc. Films attempt to
make profit when they are remade and is one of the reasons the films are remade but there are also
other reasons, from the listed films before I will be looking at, War of the world and Karate Kid and
the reasons these films were remade.
Name War of the worlds War of the worlds
(remake)
Director(s) Byron Haskin Steven Spielberg
Year of production 1953 2005
Producer(s) George Pal
Cast, (main roles) Gene Barry
Ann Robinson
Les Tremayne
Distributor Paramount Pictures
Country of origin USA USA
Budget $2,000,000 $132,000,000
Box office takings (unable to find) $588,929,061
Firstly, Steven Spielberg remade War of the Worlds because he wanted to show people