Infectés

It's no zombie flick. Unlike most virus flicks, 'Carrier' focuses on the emotional and psychological aspect of the survivors especially their struggle when they have to leave one of their own behind (or even commit the act of taking their life) in order to ensure their own survival and the despair of the soon-to-be-deceased after they have been abandoned on their own to die a slow painful death. Yes, there are a few jump sequences and a few clichéd 'horror' scenes where the infected scare and chase the survivors. In my opinion, most of these sequences weren't even necessary. Yet, the writing is mostly good and the atmosphere is well-created (even though nothing outstanding). The cinematography too is adequate. The two female leads lacked character development. Even so, Piper Perabo manages to somewhat rise above, especially in her final sequences and Emily VanCamp fails to impress. Chris Pine is quite irritating while Lou Taylor Pucci carries the movie. Christopher Meloni does a brilliant job in a supporting role. 'Carriers' is quite a change from the traditional zombie flick and even though it doesn't match up to 'The Road', it's a decent effort.

Second this is NOT a zombie film. So don't be fooled by the idiotic marketing of this fine little gem. What this is, is a deliberately paced drama about a group of survivors in a world plagued with a virus that's pretty much killed everyone and the hard decisions they have to make on their way. It could be a companion piece to The Road almost, a sort of prequel set a few years before.

While it is "slow" it only clocks in about 84 minutes which is far too short in my opinion and I wanted more really. Something tells me that the film was originally much longer but cut down by the producers to please the teens who all seem to hate it anyway.

Good film, crap marketing.

There are a lot of interesting things in this movie that will seem quite prescient after the festivities of the last year.

But it goes south so very quickly because the characters keep doing shockingly stupid things. "Hey, I'll just poke around in this murky swimming pool."

There's absolutely zero chance these four people would have survived this long.

But still very good. Chris Pine (you might have seen him in a little movie called "Star Trek" by J.J. Abrams) & Piper Perabo star in a very low key Horror movie, that doesn't even try to make you believe it has any big action scenes in it. It's more about the characters and how they react to certain situations.

Quite a few people were appalled by the fact, that there is not that much happening in the movie, but I liked it, because it was slow moving, because it took it's sweet time. Another criticism is that the movie is predictable. Again it's not so much about where it's going, but how it gets there (the "road" so to speak, even literally in this case).

In a world devastated by an outbreak, Brian (Chris Pine), his girlfriend Bobby (Piper Perabo), his brother Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci) and their friend Kate (Emily VanCamp) are heading to a beach where the brothers spent vacations in their childhood, and they expect to be a sanctuary. When their car breaks on the road in the desert, they negotiate with a man called Frank (Christopher Meloni) that run out of gas while driving his infected daughter Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) to the hospital and they travel together. Along the journey, Bobby tries to help Jodie but is contaminated by her blood; however, she does not disclose the truth to Brian and her friends. Further, they lose their humanity in their fight for survive.

"Carriers" is another "deadly virus genre" movie that uses the same premise of dozens of films and maybe the greatest difference is that there are no zombies in the plot. The beginning of the dramatic and hopeless story is not well-developed and does not explain the origins of the outbreak. The plot is indeed about the lost of humanity by the survivors, and in this regard the film is bitter and gives absolutely no hope to the human race. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Virus" ("Virus")

Note: On 11 Dec 2020, I saw this film again. In times of COVID-19 pandemic, this film is scarier and darker. The origin of the pandemic is apparently in China based on the scene of the man died on the road through the desert. My note is seven.