Posts Tagged ‘Virus’


No Blade of Grass

January 4th, 2012 | article by | 2 Comments »
Tags: , , , , ,

dir. Cornel Wilde
1970 / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / 97′
written by Sean Forestal and Cornel Wilde
from the novel by John Christopher
director of phogoraphy H.A.R. Thomson
music arranged and conducted by Burnell Whibley
starring Nigel Davenport, Lynne Frederick, Jean Wallace, John Hamill, Patrick Holt and Anthony May
now available on dvd-r through the Warner Archive Collection and Amazon.com

How would so-called civilized men react were the first world to find itself in the midst of devastating famine? This is the question posed by No Blade of Grass, the penultimate directorial effort of eccentric talent Cornel Wilde, here adapting John Christopher’s monumentally successful freshman novel The Death of Grass (which had been re-titled for its Stateside publication). One of the first films of its kind, Wilde’s No Blade of Grass is a tale of social collapse in a time of ecological catastrophe – a virus has crippled worldwide grain production, plunging the developed nations into third-world anarchy.

Caught in the resulting upheaval are well-to-do architect John Custance (Nigel Davenport), his wife (Wilde’s then wife Jean Wallace), his teenaged daughter (Lynne Frederick in her film debut) and younger son. Working with advance information from a lab-tech friend (John Hamill) the family escape a nightmarish London, patrolled by machine gun-toting bobbies and barricaded by trigger-happy military forces, just as chaos descends upon it. The plan from there is simple enough – seek the safety of brother David Custance’s isolated, easily defended farm in Westmoreland – but with every individual in England suddenly fighting to survive the veneer of civility soon wears thin, and the Custances find themselves adopting unexpectedly vicious practices to preserve themselves.

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The Dead Outside

April 16th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , ,

company: Mothcatcher Films
year: 2009
runtime: 86′
country: United Kingdom
director: Kerry Anne Mullaney
cast: Sandra Louise Douglas,
Alton Milne, Sharon Osdin
writers: Kerry Anne Mullaney, Kris R. Bird
cinematography: Kris R. Bird

It’s six months after the outbreak of the viral apocalypse (again). This time, a neurological virus in combination with a badly working vaccine (although I’m not sure the film really means “vaccine” and not just “specialized medication”) has caused large parts of humanity to become dangerously deranged. Virus victims develop symptoms of schizophrenia which get worse until the only thing they seem to feel is anger. Still, these virus victims stay very much human, most of them are even still able to ramble angrily, so calling them zombies wouldn’t feel proper.

Daniel (Alton Milne), who has lost (how and why will be sort of explained in flashbacks and visions) his family, drives through the Scottish countryside looking for a safe place to stay. His car runs out of gas, but fortunately there’s a farmhouse close by for him to seek shelter in. At first, the place seems to be deserted, but the next day Daniel meets April (Sandra Louise Douglas), an armed, emotionally devastated teenager, whose grandparents were the owners of the farm. Initially, April doesn’t want Daniel staying there, is even close to shooting him, but something changes her mind.

In the following weeks, the girl and the man grow closer, although both need some time to get over the distrust one develops when everyone else is mad and one can’t even be all that sure about one’s own state of mind. Daniel and April aren’t really willing or able to disclose much about their pasts or their feelings to each other. He thinks she might be immune against the virus, while she panics at the mere thought of getting close to any of the remaining medical facilities. Still, there is trust growing between them.

Things get difficult again when another sane survivor, Kate (Sharon Osdin) arrives one day. Her presence disturbs the brittle, unspoken pact between April and Daniel, and catastrophe already waits around the corner.

It seems as if the British isles are the place to look when it comes to ultra-low budget outbreak films. Although this Scottish production isn’t as excellent as Colin, my favourite example of the type, it is still a much better film than a lot of its peers are.

It is also a film many viewers won’t like for its very slow pace, the conscious lack of clarity in its storytelling and its rather wonderful disinterest in gore. These things aren’t caused by any lack of care in The Dead Outside‘s director Kerry Anne Mullaney, though, they are very much part of the film’s design. The film’s slowness fits a film about an end of the world that isn’t flashy or explosive, but that instead has come slowly and creeping (the same way as the virus works).

The lack of clarity is a necessary part of a film which lets us see through the eyes of characters who aren’t at all sure about their own sanity, and who can’t and don’t want to remember everything they have done too clearly. Mullaney bases some effective moments of dread on the lack of certainty about what’s real and what’s not her characters live in. I found the way Daniel’s dead family and very real danger mingle much more effective than the typical goresplosion.

This is not to say that the film doesn’t contain any action at all. There are two (probably budget-stretching) action set-pieces – of course without explosions – that impress through clever editing and the ability to build up a feel of claustrophobia in open, but dark, spaces.

Mullaney is obviously more interested in her characters than in the action or plot. This is not the sort of film that believes in expository dialogue (although there is one large expository monologue late in the film); much is insinuated and hinted at, probably in the hope for an audience willing and able to put a little work into understanding what is going on with the characters. One of the points the film is trying to make seems to be that there really is no clear difference between the state we call “sanity” and “madness”. I don’t think that’s a point it could make by being clear and obvious about everything.

I thought that the actors were really selling their roles quite well. Sure, the acting is a bit strained in a “look! I’m acting!” way from time to time, but more often than not Douglas and Milne project a mix of normalcy and brittleness that is absolutely right for the direction the film is going in. Sometimes, acting that doesn’t read as ultra-professional is of help to let the characters on screen seem like everyday people.

I had some problems with the film’s visual side. While there are some impressive shots of the farmhouse and the creepy landscape around it (you know I’m a sucker for nature in its less sweet and mellow variations), the film suffers a little from desaturation syndrome. Of course, muted grey and brown colours help emphasize the desolation of the situation, but there’s a lot to be said for using other parts of the colour spectrum too, if only to contrast them with all that grey.

Probably even more problematic is Mullaney’s decision to shoot about eighty percent of the film with the camera tilted at an angle, as if everything took place on a ship close to sinking. Creepy angles might be a well established way to build mood, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. The last point is certainly reached when I find myself tilting my head to the side while watching a movie.

Still, I found these to be minor problems that The Dead Outside more than made up for. I am an easy mark for the film’s charms, seeing how much I despise exposition and clarity in movies, and how much I like the ambiguous and the slow, but even people who aren’t me could be able to find something quite irresistible in the film’s rhythm, in the way it feels like it was made by someone with very personal ideas of what could be interesting about a viral apocalypse.

For more bizarre movie goodness, be sure
to visit Denis’ excellent review blog The Horror!?


The Crazies

March 3rd, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , ,

rating:
companies: Pittsburgh Films,
Latent Image and Cambist Films
year: 1973
runtime: 103′
country: United States
director: George A. Romero
cast: Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan,
Harold Wayne Jones, Lloyd Hollar,
Lynn Lowry, Richard Liberty,
Richard Francis, Harry Spillman,
Will Disney, Edith Bell,
Bill Thunhurst, Leland Stames
writers: Paul McCullough (original
script) and George A. Romero
cinematographer: Bill Hinzman
music: Bruce Roberts
special effects: Tony Pantanella
and Regis Survinski
order this film from Amazon.com:
VHS | SD DVD | Blu-ray

Things get a little crazy in Evans City, Pennsylvania after a germ warfare experiment crash-lands in the town water supply in this early thriller from director George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Martin).  Recently remade as a slick horror piece by Breck Eisner with an executive production assist from Romero himself (read our coverage of that film here), the original The Crazies plays less for chills than one might expect.

The story is relatively simple: The Army descends upon the quiet community of Evans City in full HAZMAT getup in an effort to contain an accidental outbreak of the experimental Trixie virus.  Epic miscommunication between the Army, civilians, and the scientists on the hunt for a vaccine causes no end of trouble, with the unprepared military suddenly finding themselves up against both the crazed infected and the understandably defensive citizens of the town.  Meanwhile a small group tries to escape the insanity, dodging military patrols while dealing with the crazies among their own . . .

There are horrific elements to Romero’s The Crazies to be sure.  The opening plays as a repeat of that from Night of the Living Dead, with a young boy trying to scare his sister through ghoulish behavior.  Things soon take a turn for the serious, as the boy’s father loses his mind and sets fire to the property.  Later displays of insanity, a priest’s self-immolation in front of his church, an elderly woman treating a soldier as so much knitting, and a father lusting after his teenage daughter, make for indelible images as powerful as anything from the earlier Night . . . but are few and far between.

The step down in horror means a step up in action, the uneasy balance between the two marking The Crazies‘ place as a bridge between the better-known horror classics that bookend it.  Scenes of the Army bursting into homes unannounced and the gun battles that ensue are highly evocative of the tenement scene early on in Dawn of the Dead, with one major difference:  The tenement residents in Dawn know that they’ve been breaking the law in keeping their dead in the basement of their building – no one bothers to tell the citizens of The Crazies why they’re suddenly finding themselves under martial law.  It’s no surprise when factions of the town, crazed and sane, take up arms against what they see as an anonymous invasionary force.

Made as the war in Vietnam was in its death throws and opposition to it was at its height, the image of the US military in The Crazies is not a terribly kind one.  Soldiers are seen stealing from invaded homes as well as from the corpses of dead, for instance.  The commentary here seems to be more about individual indiscretion under extreme circumstances (a big part of the later Dawn of the Dead) than a condemnation of the military as a whole, here presented as an organization of working men who are every bit as confused about what they’re doing in Evans City as the citizens are about their being there.  Hogtied by bureaucracy and a lack of both supplies and manpower, it’s no small wonder that the containment operation devolves into madness so quickly.

The real villains (the only villains, in fact) of the piece are the politicians and generals at the top of the food chain.  They’re first priority is to put a nuclear weapon in the skies over the quarantined city, a decision that has more to do with saving face (biological warfare experiments are obviously a no-no) than containing the infection.  Robert Wise’s The Andromeda Strain seems a likely inspiration for these sequences, with those in charge sitting in a room far from the center of action with far more concern for their personal careers than anyone who might be affected by their decisions.  Romero adds a nice touch here, showing several of the group having snacks (an orange, a sandwich) as they glibly discuss the mass-murder of a few thousand civilians.

Made for peanuts in his native Pennsylvania and on the streets of the real Evans City, The Crazies is an interesting if jumbled production from a Romero still trying to find his footing in the film world.  The biggest fault of the production is its kinetic editing sensibility, heavily influenced by Romero’s past as a commercial filmmaker.  What works well for scenes of action or horror leaves the drama tangled and, thanks to the low-budget audio recording, frequently unintelligible.  It’s not a bad film by any means, particularly given the considerable budgetary constraint, and there is still some prescience to the story (the corralling of displaced citizens into a high school gymnasium reminds of the Louisiana Superdome during and after hurricane Katrina).  It’s just not up to par with Romero’s better known works from the same time period, though the positives – strong performances and immediate, documentary-style photography – make up for the negatives.

The Crazies wasn’t a terrifically successful picture upon release in March of 1973 (it was even less successful when re-released as Code Name: Trixie a few years later) and hasn’t developed the same level of cult devotion Romero’s two contemporaneous zombie pictures.  Released twice previously on VHS by Vista Home Video and Anchor Bay respectively, Blue Underground has recently given the film the respect deserving of a lesser work from a horror icon.  Now available on both DVD and Blu-ray from the company, their editions come with excellent restored 1.66:1 framed anamorphic video as well as a nice array of supplements – including a commentary track with director Romero, a featurette on supporting actress Lynn Lowry (Shivers, I Drink Your Blood), the usual trailers and television spots and an extensive stills gallery.  Suffice it to say, the Blue Underground editions are the ones to own.

There are more than enough reasons for genre fans to see this one – the director, the supporting cast (Richard Liberty (Day of the Dead), Richard France (Dawn of the Dead) and the aforementioned Lynn Lowry), the memorable moments of craziness.  Though rife with imperfections Romero’s goal of creating a timely action / horror / thriller is achieved all the same, and The Crazies ’73 is still a far more intriguing beast than its recent remake will ever be.  Recommended.

Order this film from Amazon.com
VHS | SD DVD | Blu-ray


The Crazies

March 1st, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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rating:
companies: Overture Films, Participant
Media, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ,
Penn Station and Road Rebel
year: 2010
runtime: 101′
country: United States
director: Breck Eisner
cast: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell,
Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker,
Christie Lynn Smith, Brett Rickaby,
Preston Bailey, John Aylward,
Joe Reegan, Glenn Morshower
writers: Scott Kosar
and Ray Wright
cinematographer: Maxime Alexandre
music: Mark Isham
out in wide release

A germ warfare experiment crash-lands in the water supply for the sleepy community of Ogden Marsh in this modestly budgeted redux of George Romero’s sardonic 1973 thriller.  The new The Crazies wisely avoids rehashing the events of the original outright, though a few moments of slick horror aren’t enough to cover for the fact that the Scott Kosar and Ray Wright screenplay has precious little on its mind.

The story this go around focuses squarely on sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant, Live Free or Die Hard) and his wife Judy (Radha Mitchell, Pitch Black, Surrogates), who are expecting their first child.  The intrusion of a shotgun-toting maniac into a high school baseball game announces the arrival of Trixie, a destructive virus engineered by those maniacal masterminds working for the big-G Government.  It isn’t long before other townspeople are showing signs of infection, glassy stares and questionable behavior (some reminiscent of the M. Night Shyamalan misfire The Happening).  Just as sheriff David and deputy Russell (Joe Anderson, Amelia, The Ruins) start to put the pieces of the Trixie puzzle together the town is cast into darkness, an all-encompassing communications blackout announcing the arrival of the film’s second villain: the big-M Military.

Soon David, his wife and his faithful deputy are on the road, doing their best (and failing) to avoid the likes of crazed gun-toting hillbillies and the anonymous forces of the gas-masked Military on their way to Cedar Rapids.  They meet others along the way of course – one of Judy’s patients, her boyfriend, and the less-than-friendly new management of a rural car wash – none of whom are terribly important.  The film wastes no time in dispensing with them by means of pitchfork-armed high school staff or squads of Army-issue goons.

Breck Eisner’s The Crazies hits upon several of the high points of the 1973 film, updating the house-fire opener of that picture to good effect, but eschews the military perspective entirely (a huge part of the original, which focused on the inefficacy of government bureaucracy at the time of the Vietnam War), a perspective that could have added some prescience to this by-the-books horror programmer in the wake of hurricane Katrina and in the midst of two wars in the Middle East.  Instead we get an anonymous Military machine that, in obvious allusion to the Nazis, rounds the towns population into cattle trucks and concentration camps in preparation for mass extermination.  Yikes.  A soldier momentarily captured by David and his cohorts even enlists the Nuremberg defense after helping to gun down a teen-aged boy and his mother: “We were just following orders.”  There can be little doubt as to who is supposed to be perceived as more dangerous – the Military or the crazies – with a fuel-air bomb hanging over our protagonists’ heads.

The “military = bad” trope has been repeated in films ad-nauseum for as long as this reviewer can remember, and while it probably still works for plenty of people it’s my biggest complaint against the picture.  One thing we can be thankful for, however, is the exclusion of a scheming uniformed baddie behind it all.  Whoever is behind the quarantine operation in Ogden Marsh is left graciously unexplored, and one irksome genre pratfall avoided.

The other villains of the piece, those poor souls unfortunate enough to have become infected with the Trixie bug, are utterly unremarkable in design, with Eisner choosing to take his cues from the overflowing cornucopia of blandness that is modern zombie cinema.  The crazies sprout sores, puffy veins and discolored eyes, an aesthetic far too familiar to be in the least big frightening on its own.  Crafty implementation could have solved that particular issue, but no dice.  Eisner telegraphs his scares far in advance and allows too many of the horrific setups to devolve into outright silliness, leaving The Crazies sorely lacking in real visceral thrills.  Gore is actually quite limited here, and those expecting buckets of exposed inner organs may be disheartened.  Here I find myself giving Eisner considerable credit, for depending on the horror of the situation over graphic visuals.  A pitchfork to the gut is no less terrible a prospect without the sight of intestines flailing about.

Eisner seems more adept at action than horror here, with the slow-motion tumbling of an SUV proving one of the highlights of the picture.  His handling of the dramatics is adept if not particularly brilliant, and it’s the believability of the small-town characters that ultimately lifts The Crazies above merely average.  The cast do well in their respective roles even if no one (as is the case with much of the picture) stands out.  The fictitious Ogden Marsh may be no substitute for the real Evans City of the original, but it’s Mayberry-esque main street appeal is not to be underestimated.  The intrusion of HAZMAT-suited military men upon Rockwellian America is still a vision both surreal and effective, though it is a pity more wasn’t done with it.

I feel it important to note that I did enjoy The Crazies by and large, even if I have no desire to see it again.  Neither memorable or really effective, it’s still better than most horror programmers these days.  The crowd I was with was certainly entertained (admittedly much more-so than myself), even with a baby cooing and giggling  throughout.  The best thing about the picture may be Romero’s place as its executive producer – he’ll undoubtedly see a decent payday for his troubles.  This new The Crazies may be entirely forgettable, but those on the lookout for a matinee’s worth of entertainment could certainly do worse.


Carriers – DVD

January 6th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

postercompany: Paramount Vantage
year: 2009
runtime: 84′
country: United States
directors: Alex and David Pastor
cast: Lou Taylor Pucci, Chris Pine,
Piper Parabo, Emily VanCamp
writers: Alex and David Pastor
cinematographer: Benoit Debie
music: Peter Nashel
dvd company: Paramount Home Video
release date: December 29, 2009
retail price: $19.99
disc details: Region 1 / NTSC / single layer
video: progressive / 2.35:1 anamorphic
audio: Dolby Digital (5.1 English, 2.0 Spanish)
subtitles: English, Spanish, French
order this film from Amazon.com

Plot: The world is devastated by an unstoppable plague that leaves everyone who contracts it dead in its wake.  Four young people travel the backroads of the southwest, headed for the safety of an isolated beach motel on the Gulf Coast while following a five-step plan to avoid infection.

Early advertising for Carriers, which received a disparagingly limited theatrical release and is now making its debut on home video, passed it off as a topical shocker about a lethal outbreak of the avian flu while the latest trailer makes it appear to be just another zombie-pocalypse. “The only thing more dangerous than the disease . . . are the carriers,” it says before a seemingly dead man’s eyes burst open.  It’s a pity that Paramount Vantage couldn’t think of a more effective (and honest) manner of advertising the film, as Carriers has nothing to do with either the avian flu or roving hordes of the undead.

The truth of the matter is this:  Carriers is quite simply one of the best films about the death of man ever produced – a stripped down and intelligent character driven apocalypse picture that creates a palpable sense of existential dread without resorting to gross-out violence or cheap thrills.

001 002
003 004

The Pastor brothers, a duo of Spanish film-makers who pull double duty here as both writers and directors, play their story as a thematic homage to classic end-of-the-world vehicles of the past and wisely avoid the contrivances of the action-packed and empty headed post-Mad Max thrill fests that now dominate the genre.  The focus of Carriers is squarely on its main characters, all of whom the Pastor brothers lend considerable depth and none of whom fall into the expected teenaged monster-bait stereotype.

Carriers eschews back story about the plague itself, leaving its menace enigmatic and negating the need for any kind of bloated scientific discourse on the subject.  What is shown of its aftermath is enough to convince of its destructive potential – emptied city streets, abandoned CDC encampments, and waste disposal trucks piled high with body bags.  As dangerous as the plague itself are those it has left behind and clinging to survival, as evidenced by the sight of a murdered man crucified on a farmhouse windmill with a sign – “chinks brought it” – draped across his chest.

In-fighting among clusters of humanity has provided the primary dramatic momentum for apocalypse films since Arch Obeler’s Five from 1951, with man’s inability to deal with himself often proving far more deadly than the overriding threat of radiation sickness, flesh-eating zombies, etc.  Carriers takes the opportunity to turn that convention on its head in one scene, in which disagreement among a band of plastic-wrapped gun-toting survivalists allows for the escape of our main cast.  Such quarreling will surely mean the end of that group, but our heroes will live to drive another day.

005 006
007 008

The tension among our protagonists results from their own humanity.  Allowing a father (Christopher Meloni in a big supporting role) and his infected daughter to travel with them in the plastic and duct-tape sealed back of an SUV invites the virus into the presumed safety of their group.  It predictably spreads, giving the uninfected no choice but to make necessary (but no less horrific for their necessity) decisions – to leave sick friends to die on the side of the road, and worse.  When the final survivors reach their final destination they are despondent, their humanity crushed by what came before, and hardly in a position to rebuild the foundations of civilization.  They wander the ruins, remembering what was while coming to terms with what is – waiting for the ever-dimmer flame of mankind to snuff itself out.

The Pastor brothers, in an interview with Twitchfilm, have provided some insight into their inspirations here – John Wyndham’s superior disaster novel The Day of the Triffids and Geoff Murphy’s inconsistent but undeniably haunting The Quiet Earth.  Their film happily reminds of the best moments from scores of its apocalyptic predecessors (The Last Man on Earth, The World The Flesh and The Devil, Dawn of the Dead and more) while managing to far surpass many of them in its overall effectiveness.  To take a premise that’s been part of cinema DNA for the better part of the past 80 years and mold such a fresh, effective dramatic thriller from it is no small task, but the Pastor brothers have done so with style to spare.  Keep an eye on these guys – if there’s any fairness in the world then they’re going places.

I don’t know quite what I was expecting from Paramount’s DVD issue of Carriers (no Blu-ray is scheduled at present), though after their cut-rate theatrical release it couldn’t have been much.  They’re single layer disc certainly meets those minimal expectations, but its a far cry from the appreciative home video release we might have hoped for.

009 010
011 012

Carriers is presented in the original scope 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio in a good 16:9 enhanceed and progressive transfer.  Detail is relatively strong and the colors and contrast are very representative of how the film looked when it played theatrically.  There’s a hint of edge enhancement throughout, but otherwise I have no complaints.  The single layer encode is likewise solid, 4 gigs being more than enough for the short (84′) film.  The primary audio option is a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround English track, which does a fine job capturing the subtle sound design.  A Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Spanish dub is also included, as are subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.

And that, I’m sad to say, is it.  No commentary track, no interviews, not even an original theatrical trailer.  The only supplements are a handful of previews for other Paramount titles – Wrong Turn at Tahoe, G. I. Joe, and the reboot of Star Trek – and a short spot against tobacco products featuring a baby in an SUV being molested by bubbles floating in from around the world.  None of it has anything to do with Carriers, aside from the cross-promotion of lead Chris Pine’s turn as Captain Kirk in Star Trek.  At least the movie looks and sounds good.

The Pastor brothers have crafted something special here, and it definitely deserves to be seen.  Paramount Home Video’s DVD release leaves a bad taste in this reviewer’s mouth, but those who have been waiting patiently to get a crack at the film (and there are many) now have the opportunity to do so.  The $19.99 price tag is steep but expected, and Amazon is already selling the title at 25% below retail.  The DVD gets my begrudging recommendation, given that it’s the only way to see the film at present – Carriers itself is a must-see.

013


Carriers

September 11th, 2009 | article by | 7 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

company: Paramount Vantage
year: 2009
runtime: 84′
country: United States
directors: Alex and David Pastor
cast: Lou Taylor Pucci, Chris Pine,
Piper Parabo, Emily VanCamp
writers: Alex and David Pastor
cinematographer: Benoit Debie
Visit the awful official movie site
Out in limited release in the USA

The world is devastated by an unstoppable plague that leaves everyone who contracts it dead in its wake.  Four young people travel the backroads of the southwest, headed for the safety of an isolated beach motel on the Gulf Coast while following a five-step plan to avoid infection.

Early advertising for CARRIERS, currently in a disparagingly limited release, passed it off as a topical shocker about a lethal outbreak of the avian flu while the latest trailer makes it appear to be just another zombie-pocalypse. “The only thing more dangerous than the disease . . . are the carriers,” it says before a seemingly dead man’s eyes burst open.  It’s a pity that Paramount Vantage couldn’t think of a more effective [and honest] manner of advertising the film, as CARRIERS has nothing to do with either the avian flu or roving hordes of the undead.

The truth of the matter, and the reason I find its manner of release so appalling, is this:  CARRIERS is quite simply one of the best films about the death of man ever produced – a stripped down and intelligent character driven apocalypse picture that creates a palpable sense of existential dread without resorting to gross-out violence or cheap thrills.

carriers_ver2The Pastor brothers, a duo of Spanish film-makers who pull double duty here as both writers and directors, play their story as a thematic homage to classic end-of-the-world vehicles of the past and wisely avoid the contrivances of the action-packed and empty headed post-MAD MAX thrill fests that now dominate the genre.  The focus of CARRIERS is purely on its main characters, all of whom the Pastor brothers take the time to lend considerable depth and none of whom fall into the teenaged monster-bait stereotype.

CARRIERS eschews backstory about the plague itself, leaving its menace enigmatic and negating the need for any kind of bloated scientific discourse on the subject.  What is shown of its aftermath is enough to convince of its destructive potential – emptied city streets, abandoned CDC encampments, and waste disposal trucks piled high with body bags.  As dangerous as the plague itself are those who are clinging to survival, as evidenced by the sight of a murdered man crucified on a farmhouse windmill with a sign reading “Chincs brought it” draped across his chest.

In-fighting among clusters of humanity has provided the primary dramatic momentum for apocalypse films since Arch Obelers FIVE from 1951, with man’s inability to deal with himself often proving far more deadly than the overriding threat of radiation sickness, flesh-eating zombies, etc.  CARRIERS takes the opportunity to turn that convention on its head in one scene, in which disagreement among a band of plastic-wrapped gun-toting survivalists allows for the escape of our main cast.  Such quarrelling will surely mean the end of that group, but our heroes will live to drive another day.

carriers_3The tension among our protagonists results from their own humanity.  Allowing a father [Christopher Meloni in a big supporting role] and his infected daughter to travel with them in the plastic and duct-tape sealed back of an SUV invites the virus into the presumed safety of their group.  It predictably spreads, giving the uninfected no choice but to make necessary [but no less horrific for their necessity] decisions – to leave sick friends to die on the side of the road, and worse.  When the final survivors reach the beach they are despondent, their humanity crushed by what came before, and hardly in a position to rebuild the foundations of civilization.  They wander the ruins, remembering what was while coming to terms with what is – waiting for the ever-dimmer flame of mankind to snuff itself out.

The Pastor brothers, in an interview with Twitchfilm, provided some insight into their inspirations here – John Wyndham’s superior disaster novel THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and Geoff Murphy’s inconsistent but undeniably haunting THE QUIET EARTH.  Their film happily reminds of the best moments from scores of its apocalyptic predecessors [THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, THE WORLD THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL, DAWN OF THE DEAD and more] while managing to far surpass many of them in its overall effectiveness.  To take a premise that’s been part of cinema DNA for the better part of the past 80 years and mold such a fresh, effective dramatic thriller from it is no small task, but the Pastor brothers have done so with style to spare.  Keep an eye on these guys – if there’s any fairness in the world then they’re going places.

Whether or not mainstream audiences will be willing to embrace a quiet and deliciously restrained end of the world effort with under-acheiving big-budget trash like 2012 on its way is something we may never know, as Paramount has all but doomed the film’s theatrical life through its underfunded and blatantly fallacious advertising campaign.  I expect that most of you reading this will have to wait until CARRIERS makes its way to home video to see it at all.  My advice is to check your local theater listings and make a point to catch it that way, if possible [it's playing matinees at Block E Kerasotes here in Minneapolis through next Thursday].  The Pastor brothers have crafted something special here, and it deserves to be seen.