Plague

most of the people who comment on this film just don't get it. they don't appreciate it for the low budget gem that it is. "gemini strain" makes an excellent companion piece to the original "andromeda strain." "andromeda" is quality "a" filmaking, a full-budgeted production helmed by a major director (robert wise). as such, it's one of the best and most interesting pictures released by a major studio during the seventies. "gemini," on the other hand, is a down-and-dirty, low budget Canadian tax shelter flick. as a result it's grungier, grime-ier, and more "realistic" in a banal way. neither film is "better" than the other. each one represents a different approach to similar material. each deserves to be appreciated on its own merits. (i'm not going to give the film a numerical rating. film is too subtle and nuanced a medium to be quantified on a one to ten basis.)

A low budget,murky filmed "thriller" A virus escapes from a compound and threatens to wipe out the entire population.It is spread by an escaped quarantined women who infects everyone she comes in contact with,air vents etc. The acting in this film is so bad that the best performance is by a Hertz rent-a car lady who does not speak but registers the most emotion-slight impatience waiting for the escaped lady to find her credit card,a smile when she finds it,and confusion when she comes back to the counter to find the lady has disappeared{she sees a police car pull up outside}.The fugitive lady smirks throughout the the film ,totally ignorant of what shes done. This film is in need of a panacea

I mean, there is even a newscaster telling the public to stay at home and avoid contact with other people! Anyway, "Plague" is an attempt to make a disaster movie with no real budget to speak of; it is very drably shot, photographed, directed and acted, but its bare-bones, no-frills, minimalist approach is occasionally effective. ** out of 4.

Plague is a film without special qualities - average director, script, actors. It's not bad though. The action, although standard for this type of films, holds the viewer's interest. Of course, the whole "scientific" part of the movie only sounds scientific and can only mislead a person who has no concept of bacteriology, but this is also standard for this type of films. The so called bacteria in the videos is in fact Paramecium - you can get it in the nearest swamp and studi it in a standart microscope. Don't expect action, don't look for special effects. Actors play average and you won't see known faces.

All in all, if you like 70s thrillers, you won't regret it.

Plague is a movie about an outbreak on a bacteria called M4. The bacteria causes people to die in extreme pain, in body spasms. A woman who is a carrier escapes from a hospital and goes on the run, spreading the plague to people she encounters, and onto food in fast food stops etc. She has no idea however that she is a carrier, and as such may carry a cure. For those interested in science there are easily recognisable reasons for the reaction to the bacteria also; there is an exponential release in acetylcholine, increasing nerve activity yada yada yada. I don't want however to give the impression that due to this being a realistic account of a plague outbreak, that it is like sitting through a lecture. The movie plays like a made for TV entertainment flick, and if you go into expecting this you can get a lot of entertainment from it. The film towards the end begins to flag however, and possibly due to budget we seemingly get a good 2 minutes here and there where we get random shots of buildings and bacteria under the microscope. This in a way made the movie lose a bit of its momentum, but luckily only happens towards the end, and the movie does manage to hold together. The movie carries a kind of scientific message, which holds a lot of truth in todays society, where science moves further into unknown territory, and questions the consequences of such practises, to some extent if we should play god.

The acting in the movie far surpasses what it needs to be, and adds a lot to the movie. Daniel Pilon plays Dr. Bill Fuller who works on trying to make a cure to the bacteria, which actually he and his assistant were responsible for creating, the latter responsible for releasing.

For people who have seen Ed Hunt movies previously such as The Brain or Bloody Birthday, and liked them, i can guarantee you will get enjoyment out of this. It is excellent 70's trashy fun. However if you do not like late 70's cheaply made movies, and you are looking for something more along the lines of 28 Days Later, this movie may not be for you.