"Sometimes choosing life is just choosing a more painful form of death."I love post-apocalyptic movies, so half of Carriers' work was done before I even popped it into my DVD player. I was predisposed to like it. Fortunately, it happens to also be a pretty decent movie. Nothing really new or mind-blowing, but it works.
There's always the question of what brought about the end of the world in these kinds of flicks. Carriers goes with a deadly virus, instead of the always popular zombies, natural disasters, and nuclear wars. The virus is still very much active and the infected have nothing to look forward to other than a painful, lingering death, so our survivors primarily concern themselves with avoiding any of the few still living who may be carrying the infection. Carriers is a relatively small movie with a small cast. The main characters are two brothers and the two young women who accompany them. It's a tight group, basically a family, and most of the drama comes from the hard decisions that have to be made when the group encounters a chain of events started by finding an infected young girl and her father. There are other dangers, too. Specifically the groups of desperate, dangerous survivors that always pop up in this genre. As I said before, Carriers isn't exactly innovative. It doesn't feel stale, though. I recommend it. The filmmakers made the wise decision to keep the length of the movie pretty reasonable, but it's just long enough so that you get to know the characters well enough to invest in them. The cast is pretty decent, too. Check it out, if you're interested.
August 24, 2009
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