★ 8 / 10
***Post-Apocalyptic Horror*** "Carriers" (2009) is easily one of
Wuchak
***Post-Apocalyptic Horror*** "Carriers" (2009) is easily one of the best post-apocalyptic films. The story involves four youths in Southwest USA seeking…
***Post-Apocalyptic Horror***
"Carriers" (2009) is easily one of the best post-apocalyptic films. The story involves four youths in Southwest USA seeking sanctuary from a lethal virus that has wiped out much of the population and continues to do so. To all intents and purposes Government no longer exists and society is now a world without laws. To survive, they live by a set of rules of their own making: Avoid anyone with the disease, trust no one (not even your friends/family), immediately sterilize anything a carrier touches and realize that anyone with the disease is already dead.
The four youths are Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci), his brother Brian (Chris Pine), his girlfriend Bobby (Piper Perabo) and Danny's school friend Kate (Emily VanCampo). Over the course of a handful of days they are continually forced to make difficult moral decisions that no human being should ever have to make. They soon discover that the real enemy is not the sinister pandemic, but the darkness within their own hearts.
Unlike semi-goofy post-apocalyptic films like the Mad Max series, "Carriers" is deadly serious from beginning to end. This works in the film's favor because if the filmmakers take the material seriously the viewer can as well.
One of the moral conundrums explored is what do you do if a loved one gets the disease? Since anyone with the disease is as good as dead, do you mercifully kill them? Leave them behind to suffer and die alone? Or stay with them, which is tantamount to suicide since you'll catch the virus as well?
The film also explores one's reaction to such a pandemic: Do we forsake all sense of morality in an attempt to survive -- lie, steal, forsake and murder -- or do we hold on to our moral compass, come what may? Is life worth living if you must become an immoral, wicked savage to survive? Isn't it better to live with dignity at all costs -- fight with nobility and die with dignity when and if we must?
"Carriers" is to be commended for provoking such poignant questions.
Some denounce the film on the grounds that it's too downbeat and depressing, but wouldn't a lawless society with a highly contagious lethal virus on the loose be a very dire situation? In other words, the downbeat vibe reflects the reality of the story. This doesn't mean that every character has to be some moralless savage, as one of the main characters becomes, but it definitely makes the proceedings believable for the viewer. That said, I admit that I would have preferred if the film offered more glimpses of hope, faith and human dignity, but the filmmakers obviously wanted to explore the element of a near-hopeless-situation and the film should be accepted and respected on that level.
One obvious plothole is the perfectly maintained lawn of the golf course at the abandoned resort.
The film was shot in desolate regions of New Mexico & Texas and runs a short-but-sweet 84 minutes.
FINAL SAY: "Carriers" is an excellent -- albeit decidedly melancholic -- depiction of a post-apocalyptic world where conventional law & order are non-existent. The film successfully stimulates moral reflection and is engrossing from beginning to end. Although it looses points for being too downbeat...
***ENDING SPOILER ALERT***
...especially the climax. C'mon, the dude makes it to the remote beach and he has a hot lass at his side; they could be the new Adam & Eve, but all he does is whine like it's the end of the world or something.
GRADE: A-
Read full review
★ 5 / 10
Clear lack of survival mentality
cashbacher
While the premise of this movie is very relevant to the current state of the world, (Covid-19)the actions by the major players is at best lame and often…
While the premise of this movie is very relevant to the current state of the world, (Covid-19)the actions by the major players is at best lame and often reaches the point of stupid. An extremely deadly virus has been unleashed on the world and it is almost universally fatal. Two young men and two young women are in a car traveling to a seaside resort where the two boys spent a considerable amount of time in their youth. It takes a bit of time before these facts are clear to the viewer.
The four of them have masks and a lot of bleach and are very cautious about contact with anything that could possible be contagious. At first, they seem very knowledgeable about their situation and what they need to do to survive. The two men are brothers, but the exact situation regarding the two women is unclear.
It does not take long before the intelligence declines and the stupidity rises. When their car is irretrievably broken, the older brother (the leader) takes out his pistol and does some target practice on a political campaign sign. No one with any real sense of their situation would have wasted precious ammunition like that.
Some of their actions appear incredibly foolish once it becomes clear just how deadly the virus is. They arrive at a Center for Disease Control base only to find little more than death and a sense of futility. Almost no one is left alive. Yet, they engage in absurd behaviors where they could suffer broken bones or be in an auto accident.
As disaster movies based on a virulence go, this one had a lot of potential, but it is hard to take a movie based on such actions in response seriously.
Read full review
62%
TOMATOMETER
· 37 reviews
39%
AUDIENCE
· 50K ratings
5.9/10
53.8K
•••
test