Señal de alarma

I don't know if Zombie purists would call it a zombie film but this nice little picture stands the test of time to tonight's DVD viewing. I enjoyed almost all of it but the ending could have been better. The film makes some big comments on genetic engineering and the government/ corporation relationships regarding this. I would google this subject out and you will find some stories just as scary as this film!

Some real scares there. I like how the film doesn't make me cringe like many sci-fi/horror films of the period but actually impressed me. A hidden gem. Highly competent film that sustains almost to the end. The film involves some zombie concepts but doesn't follow the formula quite like the other films in that genre.

Great cast and the direction is restrained. The film stands the test of time so source it out.

Unlike many horror movies where you need to check your credulity at the door, what you see in this film is actually believable. The idea of military scientists finding a catalyst which induces rage in the human mind, then mating it with a virus as a delivery device, is a very scary idea! Imagine you could catch homicidal mania as easily as you could catch the flu.

The acting in this movie is good if somewhat uneven. Joanie (played wonderfully by Kathleen Quinlan) is a very intense character. Sam Waterston is good as her lover and the local sheriff.

The film is not slick, but has some intense moments that many "slicker" films can only dream of achieving. Overall a very suspenseful film.

This wasn't a bad film for its time. The cast is especially good. Sam Waterston and Jeffery Demunn play very well off each other and Kathleen Quinlen is a criminally underused actress, so it is always nice to see her.

The plot line has echoes of George Romero's earlier paen to paranoia and bio warfare spills 'The Crazies'. This film also pre-figures Resident Evil and 28 Days Later but played on a much smaller scale. Watching a film shot in the mid 1980's now serves as a reminder of just how bombastic and over-the-top most current films have become.

A modest effort but entertaining nonetheless.

After an an outbreak of a virulent bacteria a secret military laboratory is sealed, causing conlicts within and with the miltary and townsfolk outside.

Reminiscent of The Crazies (1973) director Hal Barwood offers an interesting procedural safety protocol film. Barwood and Matthew Robbins' screenplay's delivers a somewhat accurate portrayal of biological safety protocols, specifically in response to an outbreak of a virulent bacteria. The first act is a little plodding rather than simmering, however, things heat up in the second act, with a rescue team setup (that Aliens (1986) would later borrow). The third act returns to clunky smidgins of staged violence, conflicts and viral tropes.

The on location feel gives weight to the proceedings, Dean Cundey's cinematogphery offers moodiness especially in the night time segments in contrast to the daytime scenes and clinical laboratory complex settings. With a suppoting cast of familar faces, including The Termintor's (1984) Rick Rossovich, the leads; reliable Sam Waterston, notable Kathleen Quinlan, with limited screen time Yaphet Kotto, and memorable Jeffrey DeMunn to name a few are more than adequate.

Warning Sign does for biohazards what Close Encounters of the Third Kind did for aliens, make of that what you will.

I recently saw a preview for Resident Evil, the latest sci-fi/gore opus from Event Horizon director Paul Anderson. (Not to be confused with Paul Thomas Anderson). It looks like a big budget, explosive version of Warning Sign, a strange little horror movie I remember watching in the '80s. The plot of the 1985 film involves a deadly serum leaking inside a bio-chemical plant in rural Utah. The plant is sealed off--no one can get in or get out. What happens inside is best described as Night of the Living Dead meets the Andromeda Strain. All in all, not a bad horror film, and the actors (Sam Waterston, Kathleen Quinlan--both Oscar nominees, but alas, not for Warning Sign) manage to keep straight faces. The film has an "Alien" feel to it, and is quite stylish to boot. More than anything, the film has a good, somewhat believable premise for a horror story. But the execution is just so odd. Scientists becoming zombies or monsters has been done before, and the atmospheric first half of the movie is somewhat ruined by the over-the-top, borderline campy second half. We'll see soon enough whether Anderson's version of the idea is successful, although judging from the ads, I seriously doubt it.