The Carrier

Was mainly only enjoyable because I was an extra on this film. Not very glamorous to have your wardrobe be a Hefty bag. Plus it shot in the middle of the summer and with the lights on the set and the heat and then being wardrobed in a Hefty bag...quite the challenge. I thought the main actors did a passable job and because of the timing of when it was filmed it definitely was an allegory of the AIDS epidemic at the time. Now in today's times it would be more of an H1N1 allegory. Some of the dialog taken out of context can still bring my friends and I to tears of laughter. Wish I could find a copy of the movie to see how it "holds up" today.

In defense of this movie, it is completely original. But don't you have questions about who and how it was produced? It seems like a whole town got together and pooled their limited resources to produce this film that must have been written by a local who had waaay too much acid in the 70's. But for some reason I find this movie affecting. Who can't relate to the main characters loneliness and isolation? But to all those complainers out there: People are always criticizing movies for being the same bland formula over and over-now here's one that's way different than most without being totally incomprehensible. My hat goes off to the people who made this movie. You tried, and sometimes that's enough.

The Carrier (1988)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Jake (Gregory Fortescue) lives in a small mountain town where he's pretty much an outcast due to people believing that he murdered his parents. One day this small town because victim to some sort of disease or virus that is spreading around and will burn a person to death if they catch it. What people don't know is that it's Jake who is the carrier.

If you grew up watching horror films in the 1980s then you know there were dozens if not hundreds of low-budget films that lacked any sort of creativity so usually those films just gave us mindless killings, gore or a bunch of sex and nudity. THE CARRIER is a film that has a small cult following to it and after watching the film it's easy to see why. If you're looking for some sort of violent or gory movie then this certainly isn't for you. While there are certainly some flaws here there's no question that the film at least has some creative moments.

What impressed me the most about THE CARRIER is the fact that it had a very small budget yet it uses the lack of money to build something creative and original. The idea of a virus going around and killing people is an interesting thing to do but having one carrier just added to the entertainment. What I loved about the film is that it had no money but it was creative in the way this small town had to fight against the disease. The costumes look very cheap and that's a plus because it's exactly what you'd expect a homemade costume to look like if these events were really happening.

The look of the small town was wonderful and I was also impressed with the majority of the performances. I thought they were all quite natural and best of all is that they were at least believable for the type of film that you were watching. There are two versions of this movie available, the original 98-minute cut and a Director's Cut that clocks in at 108-minutes. I watched the Director's Cut and honestly felt that the film went on too long so perhaps the shorter version should have been the better one to watch.

As I said, there are certainly some flaws found in THE CARRIER but there's no question that it's an entertaining movie and one that doesn't allow its small budget to ruin it. Instead, the film took the lack of money and did something creative with it.

Filmed in upstate Michigan by writer / director / executive producer Nathan J. White and company, the interesting, symbolic "The Carrier" is a regional, independent horror film worth checking out. While undeniably very low budget and fairly crude, it does live up to the word "horror". It shows just how ugly things can get in times of crisis when there are no real leaders. It has a certain intensity, fueled by a sense of paranoia. In that sense, it's reminiscent of "The Thing" as well as George Romeros' "The Crazies", with its plot of a biological terror striking fear into the hearts of God fearing small town Americans.

Gregory Fortescue stars as Jake Spear, a young man who lives on the fringes of the small town of Sleepy Rock. Most other people there treat him like crap, because they 100% believe him guilty of the long ago deaths of his parents. One of a select few who will actually talk to him is Treva (Stevie Lee). One night, Jake is attacked by a fabled "black thing" which badly scratches him. Unbeknownst to Jake, this has now caused him to be infected with a truly hideous disease, making him "the carrier" of the title. And this disease has a quick acting, frightening ability to dissolve its victims. The local doctor (Steve Dixon, "Mosquito") urges calm and reason, but to little avail.

The acting is largely negligible, but there's no denying the sincerity of the cast. Fortescue and Lee are reasonably appealing, Dixon is fine as the doctor, and Paul Urbanski and Patrick Butler come off fairly well as the guys in charge of two warring factions. Die hard genre fans will recognize the names of some of the crew, like composer Joseph LoDuca, who contributes a very fine score, and cinematographer Peter Deming. B movie icon Bruce Campbell is credited as a sound effects recordist. The scenery & atmosphere are nice, the visuals striking (citizens must wrap themselves in whatever material they can find), and the special effects passable for whatever they cost to make. The subject matter has some poignancy and will undoubtedly make its viewers think of things like AIDS, which was very much on peoples' minds during this decade.

"The Carrier" is somewhat obscure now, but it definitely merits a look from horror enthusiasts.

Seven out of 10.

has my all-time favorite non-sequitor movie line... which is "Give us your cats, we have red objects!"

I watched hundreds of horror films (4 a night) in the 80s and this stood out in the top 5 for originality and great cheesey scriptwriting.