Sinal de Perigo

Durably taut, but rather restraint little low-budget biological thriller that sees a group of scientists quarantined inside a building when a deadly chemical agent they're working on is accidentally released, causing them to become violently homicidal. Caught in the middle of it is a lady security guard, who might just hold the answer for a vaccine, as she seems unaffected.

Confidently directed, thoughtfully written (as it could be seen as a minor blue print for "Resident Evil") and exemplary performed, but "Warning Sign" seems to go by unnoticed, despite it's considerably gripping and unnerving progression. Their low-scale origin is probably what tips it in that forgotten category, because it's not excitingly barnstorming in its thrills or cast. Nonetheless it bestows moments of furious intensity and compact suspense… in what feels like a waiting game after not taking all that long to get into it. The acting led perfectly pitched by Kathleen Quinlan, Sam Waterston, Jeffrey DeMunn, Richard Dysart, G.W. Bailey and Yaphet Kotto. Craig Safan chips away with an ominously airy electronic score. Director Hal Barwood well measured style, ably operates with his actors in constructing a real fearful mood inside the building, but also making the air outside just as dangerously on-edge. When it came to its irony enclosed ending, it felt a little out of place and rather forced than what it naturally built-up.

An earnest, but well engineered sci-fi / horror outing that's more than your simple filler.

Historically, many may not remember but this film was released at the time of Chernobyl nuclear accident in Russia. Life does not imitate art here but plays a close second. Although, the ending is not fully satisfying, the first reviewer Jack Sommersby fails to see some superb talents behind the camera. Visually, the lab sequences are very terrifying and well acted. Worth a second look.

Mr Flick-2

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.

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.

Hal Barwood directed this thriller that stars Sam Waterston as Utah sheriff Cal Morse, who is forced to deal with the accidental contamination that has occurred at a research facility dealing with toxins. The military arrives to control things, but the families of the employees trapped inside the sealed-off containment area want answers, and threaten to batter down the doors to rescue them, which would be most unwise, as the released toxin has turned them into psychotic killers, except Cal's pregnant girlfriend Joanie(played by Kathleen Quinlan). Cal and a scientist(played by Jeffrey De Munn) must infiltrate the facility, to find a cure... Marginal film at least doesn't go overboard into Zombie clichés(thank goodness!), but despite the fine cast, it just misses, becoming a bit too predictable and unimaginative, though is certainly watchable enough for what it is.