User reviews

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.

In a world devastated by an outbreak, Brian (Chris Pine), his girlfriend Bobby (Piper Perabo), his brother Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci) and their friend Kate (Emily VanCamp) are heading to a beach where the brothers spent vacations in their childhood, and they expect to be a sanctuary. When their car breaks on the road in the desert, they negotiate with a man called Frank (Christopher Meloni) that run out of gas while driving his infected daughter Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) to the hospital and they travel together. Along the journey, Bobby tries to help Jodie but is contaminated by her blood; however, she does not disclose the truth to Brian and her friends. Further, they lose their humanity in their fight for survive.

"Carriers" is another "deadly virus genre" movie that uses the same premise of dozens of films and maybe the greatest difference is that there are no zombies in the plot. The beginning of the dramatic and hopeless story is not well-developed and does not explain the origins of the outbreak. The plot is indeed about the lost of humanity by the survivors, and in this regard the film is bitter and gives absolutely no hope to the human race. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Virus" ("Virus")

Note: On 11 Dec 2020, I saw this film again. In times of COVID-19 pandemic, this film is scarier and darker. The origin of the pandemic is apparently in China based on the scene of the man died on the road through the desert. My note is seven.

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.

While the premise of this movie is very relevant to the current state of the world, (Covid-19)the actions by the major players is at best lame and often reaches the point of stupid. An extremely deadly virus has been unleashed on the world and it is almost universally fatal. Two young men and two young women are in a car traveling to a seaside resort where the two boys spent a considerable amount of time in their youth. It takes a bit of time before these facts are clear to the viewer. The four of them have masks and a lot of bleach and are very cautious about contact with anything that could possible be contagious. At first, they seem very knowledgeable about their situation and what they need to do to survive. The two men are brothers, but the exact situation regarding the two women is unclear. It does not take long before the intelligence declines and the stupidity rises. When their car is irretrievably broken, the older brother (the leader) takes out his pistol and does some target practice on a political campaign sign. No one with any real sense of their situation would have wasted precious ammunition like that. Some of their actions appear incredibly foolish once it becomes clear just how deadly the virus is. They arrive at a Center for Disease Control base only to find little more than death and a sense of futility. Almost no one is left alive. Yet, they engage in absurd behaviors where they could suffer broken bones or be in an auto accident. As disaster movies based on a virulence go, this one had a lot of potential, but it is hard to take a movie based on such actions in response seriously.

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.

Watched this one on a whim and also cause i wanted to see something else Chris Pine (young capt kirk) did. He is a pretty good actor and i look forward to seeing more of him in the future. This movie is surprisingly very good! However just be forewarned its another virus strain infection storyline that i think is being overdone as of late. U want to see a good virus strain movie be sure to catch either 28 days later or its sequel 28 weeks later. Like i said earlier this is a well acted and often suspenseful movie about 4 young people just trying to survive a serious viral outbreak and get to the ocean where they aren't certain is clean but its where the two brothers grew up and would be a nice place to end if it comes to that.A good watch!

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.

It's no zombie flick. Unlike most virus flicks, 'Carrier' focuses on the emotional and psychological aspect of the survivors especially their struggle when they have to leave one of their own behind (or even commit the act of taking their life) in order to ensure their own survival and the despair of the soon-to-be-deceased after they have been abandoned on their own to die a slow painful death. Yes, there are a few jump sequences and a few clichéd 'horror' scenes where the infected scare and chase the survivors. In my opinion, most of these sequences weren't even necessary. Yet, the writing is mostly good and the atmosphere is well-created (even though nothing outstanding). The cinematography too is adequate. The two female leads lacked character development. Even so, Piper Perabo manages to somewhat rise above, especially in her final sequences and Emily VanCamp fails to impress. Chris Pine is quite irritating while Lou Taylor Pucci carries the movie. Christopher Meloni does a brilliant job in a supporting role. 'Carriers' is quite a change from the traditional zombie flick and even though it doesn't match up to 'The Road', it's a decent effort.

Intrigue, intense drama , action and suspense film about a deadly and rapacious virus spread by means of infection and contagion . This interesting film is set a few years from now, a dangerous, desolate world of the future where a virus outbreaks , annihilates population and there rules the strongest law . As four friends fleeing a viral pandemic soon learn they are more dangerous than any virus . They are : Brian (Chris Pine) , his girlfriend Bobby (Piper Perabo) , his brother Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci) and their friend, Kate (Emily VanCamp) . Their rules are simple , you break them, you die ... They take extreme necessary measures to stop the rapacious epidemic . When their car breaks down on the road and stranded in desert they agree a covenant with a man named Frank (Christopher Meloni) who carries his ill little daughter (Shipka) . The virus expands rapidly and they look for a doctor (Mark Moses) who has found a healing potion .

Suspense thriller that deals with an intense drama , a special relationship among two brothers and intrigue about a deadly virus is spread by contagion . The pictures results to be a metaphor for AIDS panic in the same way that 50s extraterrestrial films mirrored fears of Red Menace . Nice performance for a promising all-star-cast as Chris Pine , future ¨Star Trek's captain Kirk¨ , Piper Perabo of ¨Covert affairs¨ , Emily VanCamp of ¨Revenge¨ and Christopher Meloni of ¨Law and order¨. Colorful and appropriate cinematography by Benoît Debie . Stirring and adequate musical score by Peter Nashel . Good direction by Pastor Brothers who do have its thrilling moments , most of them in the first half , though the second half being mostly dramatic and tragic . The motion picture was compellingly realized by David and Alex Pastor . They offer us an intelligent flick of the apocalyptic world movie, intimate and committed . This one resulted to be their first film and David and Alex Pastor Brothers have directed in 2013 ,¨The Last days¨ , with Quim Gutierrez , Jose Coronado , Marta Etura ; also dealing with a strange virus in which humanity develops an irrational fear of open that causes instant death , as the world population is trapped inside buildings and Barcelona descends into chaos . ¨Carriers¨ rating : Better than average . Well worth watching .

I was at the "World Premiere" tonight at the Fantasy Filmfest in Hamburg and I have to say Carriers was completely underwhelming. I liked the general premise but every step of the story is driven plot turns which feel more and more forced and only seemingly take place to get the story as far as the MacGuffin, in this case a secluded beach where the characters will be able to hide from disease and humans alike.

On top of that the characters of the brothers become annoyingly cliché as each lives up to their sensitive-liberal-brain/makes-the-hard-decisions-conservative-brawn stereotypes. It's a pity because the film does make some hard and interesting decisions with the characters but the ideas simply aren't there to keep the tension and overall story steaming along.

A very very average film which is well made and is still worth a view but ultimately disposable.

Epilogue - why does there always have to be a scene in American apocalypse films where the characters inappropriately fondle an American flag to dramatic music? The scene was completely out of place in a film that plays it straight and realistic the whole way through.

To all intents and purposes, Carriers really isn't that much of a horror film, it's more a survivalist, character based, road movie. After an infectious virus has decimated the Earth, two brothers (Chris Pine/Lou Taylor Pucci) and their two lady companions (Piper Perabo/Emily VanCamp) are heading to Turtle Beach in the hope that in isolation there they can ride out the epidemic and start afresh.

What follows is that they encounter a man on the road with his sick daughter, and their plans then go astray. The moral dilemmas build up, the character dynamics unfurling in a whirl of human emotions, disappointments and heart aching decisions are evident as the search for sanity and gasoline goes on. Naturally the virus isn't the only thing to be fearful of, there's the other virus, that of the human condition in survival situations...

Having sat on the shelf for three years, Carriers came a bit late in the day to make a telling mark in a sub-genre of horror that has tapped into our new age fear of the virus. In a way that is a shame, because David and Alex Pastor's (writers/directors) film is very well made. With good performances, astute photography and a humanistic narrative that is not without merit. Yet even for 2009 it feels old hat, like a lukewarm sci-fi schlocker without the monsters or apocalyptic peril.

It's well worth a watch because there is nothing irritating here, but anyone expecting some infected/zombie infused apocalypto will be very disappointed. 6/10

The key, unequivocal problem with the Pastor Brothers film 'Carriers' is that it just doesn't go anywhere: it begins, eighty minutes go by, and then the credits roll. The narrative just trudges along from start to finish without further challenging the audience or without placing further emphasis on the dramatic choices at hand. Which is disappointing as this film had a lot of unearthed potential that would have certainly set it apart from simply being 'just another zombie/pandemic' film. Instead, it is unfortunately, just another viral pandemic flick.

Brian (Chris Pine), his brother Danny (Lou Pucci) and their two female friends Bobby (Piper Perabo) and Kate (Emily VanCamp) are your four typical just-out-of-college kids who are on the road to nowhere, literally. After a viral outbreak incapacitates almost the entire population of the United States and potentially the world, they decide to hit the road and hopefully find somewhere to stay or somebody to engage with who is free of the virus.

'Carriers' would be more aptly placed in the drama genre than the horror or thriller section of the local video store as nothing as note actually takes place in regards to the latter genres. There are maybe two or three scenes ranging from two to three minutes in length which contain some suspenseful elements, however the rest of the film is rather conventional. Even regarding the lack of blood and on screen violence, after all, the central on screen element is the deteriorating relationships between the characters.

When the teens encounter Frank (Christopher Meloni) and his infected, young daughter Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) in the middle of a desolate stretch of road just waiting for somebody to "lend them some fuel," the first of a few moralistic situations are shoved towards the audience. Would you leave them? Would you help them? The crux of 'Carriers' is based around one simple principle; don't help anybody infected, not matter how young or how vulnerable they are and YOU will stay alive. And it's how the characters engage with these various situations which they encounter along their journey, and this manages to breathe a little life into this heavily deflated film.

Chris Pine, pre Star Trek, gives a brilliant performance as the brother who has had the emotional consciousness beaten out of him throughout the pandemic to the point the where the survival of himself and his younger brother is the only objective. While Lou Pucci, who portrays Brian's younger brother Danny, also pulls out an equally inspiring performance as the younger brother who is constantly fighting with his conscience with regards to the tough decisions that Brian has to make.

If Alex and David Pastor were given the opportunity to go back and shoot around thirty-to-forty minutes worth of extra footage, then 'Carriers' would have the potential to be a very good film. Instead, however, we are left with a film so short in length that once we have just connected and engaged with the characters and their desperate situations the credits begin to roll and the lights come up leaving you feeling incredibly empty inside and asking one brief question; "Is that it?"

Second this is NOT a zombie film. So don't be fooled by the idiotic marketing of this fine little gem. What this is, is a deliberately paced drama about a group of survivors in a world plagued with a virus that's pretty much killed everyone and the hard decisions they have to make on their way. It could be a companion piece to The Road almost, a sort of prequel set a few years before.

While it is "slow" it only clocks in about 84 minutes which is far too short in my opinion and I wanted more really. Something tells me that the film was originally much longer but cut down by the producers to please the teens who all seem to hate it anyway.

Good film, crap marketing.

There's a good movie lurking here, but this isn't it. The basic idea is good: to explore the moral issues that would face a group of young survivors of the apocalypse. But the logic is so muddled that it's impossible to get involved.

For example, our four heroes are (understandably) paranoid about catching the mysterious airborne contagion that's wiped out virtually all of mankind. Yet they wear surgical masks some times, not others. Some times they're fanatical about wiping down with bleach any area touched by an infected person. Other times, they seem completely unconcerned.

Worse, after apparently surviving some weeks or months in this new kill-or-be-killed world, these people constantly behave like total newbs. They don't bother accumulating proper equipment, or food. They're forever running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere. They don't take elementary precautions when meeting strangers. And after wading through the rotting corpses of the entire human race, they're as squeamish as sheltered debutantes. You have to constantly wonder how they could have survived this long... and even if they did, why anyone would want to make a movie about them.

So when these dweebs stop to agonize over the moral dimensions of their actions, it's impossible to take their soul-searching seriously. Their actions would first have to make some kind of minimal sense.

On top of all this, we must contend with the dubious acting abilities of Chris Pine. His portrayal of an arrogant young James T Kirk might have seemed shrewd, when viewed in isolation. But in Carriers he plays on exactly that same note: arrogant and boneheaded. It's impossible not to suspect that this constitutes his entire dramatic range.

On the positive side, the film *looks* excellent. It's got an over-sharp, saturated look that really suits the southwestern US locale. But that can't save the truly feeble writing nor the paper-thin (and annoying) characters. Even if you're a fan of the end-of-the-world genre, you should save yourself the agony of watching Carriers.