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I remember seeing this 20 yrs ago and having a very favorable impression, but the recent copy I bought and viewed this week showed both better and worse aspects, different from what I recalled. Anyway, the story is quite catching and most of the acting is above average, thanks to a good ensemble cast of quality folks. Very well done art/set design makes up for rather standard plot direction, with some nicely eerie moments. There's well written, believable dialog interspersed with silly, and well developed characters interspersed with stereotypes. So it's a mishmash but a good one. Would have been nice to see a more believable military response to the viral outbreak, but the budget must have only been enough for a small crew of national guard type soldiers rather than a more believable crack platoon outfit that would have been all over the locals, and sent them packing. Definitely a good half of a double feature with Endangered Species, or Andromeda Strain.

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.

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 very underrated film happens to be one of my favorite thriller/horror films of the 80's. This film is so stylish that even the blood spatter that follows is done tastefully and not gory. A virus turns biologists into zombie-like humans, but they don't want to eat your brains and you don't turn into a zombie when bitten. They do, however, want to kill the living, hence the zombie referral, although it is by no means a zombie film. The cast is incredibly good and convincing, and the make-up effects are equally good. Interesting fact about director Hall Barwood is that this was his only film project as director. After this, he ventured into video games.

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.