Carriers is a film that makes you think its going to be something else than what it is…if that makes sense. Basically, the trailer seems to make you believe, or it made me believe anyway, that Carriers ‘Four friends fleeing a viral pandemic soon learn they are more dangerous than any virus.’ would be some type of 28 Days Later, gore fest. It’s not. It probably serves me right for watching the trailer first, but hey, I would never have known it was on if I hadn’t seen the trailer. The trailer showed people changing with this virus, people fighting, more of the virus, one of the characters being attacked by the virus and then one of the characters getting sneezed on by the virus. I mean, this does all happen, but not exactly like they are all portrayed. Spoiler There are people with the virus but not as many as you’d a) like or b) want, in the advert, the car gets attacked but actually in the film, that happens but they pick them up in the end. A whole lot less dramatic than expected. It is also not as gory as you’d have expected from seeing the trailer.
Ok, moving on from the trailer and onto the actual film, even though it wasn’t everything that I’d thought it would be, I did enjoy this film. It’s more about the characters then it is about the virus and the zombies. We go in and meet the group in the mists of when the virus has taken over, there is no one around, they are travelling in the car and following rules to keep themselves alive. The rules are things like clean everything that has been touched by the virus, are Brian’s idea and they have been following them since the virus broke out. Like Zombieland, the rules are good until there’s a disruption. In Zombieland, it was ‘not to be a hero’ yet when the person you like is in trouble, you turn into Chuck Norris, it’s a similar situation in Carriers. Spoiler Bobby, Brian’s girlfriend stays with the little infected girl in the car, who they picked up earlier with her dad, as everyone else uses the toilet or something like that, as the girl is infected she is behind some plastic as to not pass it on. The girl starts choking so Bobby takes the plastic down to help her but wears her mask, the girl chokes and splatters her with virus juice. This is exactly how the virus is spread but Bobby keeps it to herself, sadly, she has got the virus and thus, when two strangers demand to make sure they don’t have the virus, her virus ridden body is shown. According to the rules, she is out, and Brian sticks to them, leaving her behind with some food and water and telling her to walk. Like in Zombieland, this could have been an easy way to break the rules and is one of the moments during Carriers that you realise it is not just a film about the virus.
There are a lot of apocalypse films out there and I think what the director did with this film was good, they didn’t just zoom in on the virus, they went mainly on the characters and the relationships. They meet some people along the way but only one or two of them is infected, this is more about the human side to an apocalypse instead of the virus side of it. This makes it stand out, it may not be the most brilliant film but it has balls, it doesn’t just rely on gore and zombies, it goes on relationships and characters. I like my gore but I will give it to this film for trying something new. It might be even more realistic as you do see the characters and you see breakdowns which is more likely to happen than everyone being able to fight creatures off.
Worse for wear...
Brian may seem the tough guy but this film shows his human character, he came up with the rules but actually he is slowing being broken down. In the end Spoiler it all gets too much for Brian and he has a breakdown, as if that wasn’t bad enough, it turns out that he also has the virus leading to his brother Danny having to shoot him and burn his body. All the way through, they had been following the rules and trying to make their way to Turtle Beach, a beach where Danny and Brian went as kids as you saw at the beginning, this is their saviour, they childhood favourite place. Danny and his ‘girlfriend’ finally make it, yet it feels just as bad and empty as outside it without Brian. Again, more about the characters than the virus.
I enjoyed this film, it was more than a virus, apocalypse movie, it showed the realistic side of humans in times like these. It has balls. Didn’t get what I had thought originally but I enjoyed it. A bally movie.
TheSlaughteredLamb 