Infectés

The movie revolves around the fate of 4 unpleasant millennials mid-way through an apocalypse caused by a gruesome virus. They've instituted rules that are meant to keep them from getting infected. Some of these seem rational, like "disinfect stuff touched by decaying people."

Too bad they didn't include rules like "let's avoid acting like the cast of Jackass." I don't want to spoil their clever pranks, so I'll compare them to the geniuses who tried to drive blindfolded using only the GPS, like Sandra Bullock in Birdbox.

There are predictable lessons about karma, a few mild jump scares, and plenty of times to take bathroom breaks.

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).

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.

It's hard for me to precisely categorize this movie. Drama? Sure. Thriller? For sure. Horror? Mmm, I don't think so. It's funny, because it's hard not to label the movie horror, seeing as how it deals with a grotesque infection, that spreads worldwide terror and brings civilization to its knees. However, the infected aren't the antagonists here. Once you've been infected, you're basically already dead.

Ultimately I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. After reading other comments here, it seems the general consensus is that the pace is too sluggish. I'd have to agree that it was a long 90 minutes, but as someone who is prone to falling asleep during movies, especially after an 8 hour shift, my interest was effortlessly sustained throughout the movie.

The production values here are top notch. I was never bothered by bad acting (or at least too bad). The cast fit my tastes, maybe only falling short with Piper Perabo, but that would only be nit-picking. The photography wasn't jaw-dropping, or even slightly innovative, but it was still more than adequate.

What actually impressed me most was the writing. There are some real gems in there, but mentioning them would be spoiling some great scenes. I seemed to sense some anti-religious or religious undertones, however I honestly can't decide which. I suppose that's what I liked so much about it, the morality was left quite vague.

Anyway, a solid effort. It's possibly lacking some more gore, and action, but that also could have just made it tasteless. I would recommend this to anyone who's a fan of biological horror, but I'd say ultimately you should see it for the story, and not the action.

I just left the screening of "Carriers". It was the opening Movie on this years Fantasy Film Fest. At least here in Munich. Well, my first reaction to this film was something like "Wow... this where long 90 Minutes". Most of the other crowd thought the same and their comments where quite similar to mine. Meaning: Good, but a bit slow.

This Movie needs a little tightening to speed it up a little bit. It does a lot of things right! The characters are worked out properly, the camera-work is top notch and the acting is very good. But sometimes there are scenes, that last too long. You know where the Directors want to go, you know how the scene will play out in the end, but it still goes on and on and on... So again: a little trimming would do the film good!

Well, and then there is this whole "Wrong Marketing"-Thing. At least here in Germany they try to sell this movie as a Horror-Movie. That's just wrong. Sure, there are the classic Horror-Elements, but overall "Carriers" is a strong, heavy Drama. There is virtually NO Action and even less gore in it. Instead there are long dialogs, dramatic events and more dialogs. That's fine with me, but it makes the movie hard to find it's audience. The GoreHounds will be disappointed by the lack of blood and guts and the Drama-Fans will be pushed away by the apocalyptic Elements...

So. Once again: "Carriers" has great potential but is a little bit to slow and to heavy on the drama to pass as a great movie.