Carriers

Carriers is one of those movies that looks really mediocre in the trailer but absolutely crushes it when you actually sit down and watch the movie. This is a horror story as well as a odd type of family drama. The cast is pretty stacked for an independent movie with Chris Pine, Lou Taylor Pucci, Christopher Meloni, Piper Perabo, and Emily VanCamp. Having Elliot Stabler and Captain Kirk on screen is really a huge help to the movie because they are both pretty big stars in their own right. This movie feels like an alternate version of The Crazies where the virus spread around the country and this follows a small group of survivors who form a pseudo-family.

The movie follows a group of twenty-somethings who have survived a catastrophic global pandemic that has wiped out a huge amount of the world's population. Each member of the group deals with the situation in their own way and by the way the group consists of brothers, Danny and Brian, Brian's girlfriend Bobby, and Danny's friend Kate. Brian is the decision maker of the group and he is kind of forced to make a bunch of decisions that way heavily on his mind after an extended period of time. Danny is not oblivious to their situation but chooses not to look at the negatives all of the time and tries to be more upbeat than the others. They encounter other survivors along their journey with the largest time being spent on the character Frank and his young daughter, who is infected with the virus. The main group is just trying to get where they need to go where as Frank is trying everything he can do to save his daughter. Frank's journey ends too soon in my opinion because I thought he was a slightly more compelling character than most of the main group of characters. The movie plays out in a stereotypical fashion but the movie is never dull and moves along at a quick pace and this is good because the running time is pretty short.

Movies like this ultimately have a hard time gaining a following because the studios throw them to the side and pushing them into straight to video status. This is a shame because this movie is a diamond in the rough and if the studio had taken a little more time to market the movie then it may have actually been successful. There have been movies just like this one that have prospered over the last few years such as The Road and The Crazies. Each actor brings a good performance to the table but Meloni was the standout in my opinion. Most people have not seen him in movies and mainly know him from Law and Order: SVU. He is the only one who is trying to do anything to better his situation because he is trying to find a cure for his daughter and give her the best life that he can. Where as the main group is simply trying to wait out the virus which is not productive and that is why they get infected in the most mundane ways ever. Sometimes the supporting characters in the movie are more interesting than the main characters and that in a way takes away from the movie because the story you find interesting does not have that much screen time. This is a minor quip that I have with the movie but it is something that distracted me at points in the movie.

This is a movie that is worth a viewing and I had a good time watching it. The cast is fantastic and the way the virus is realistically portrayed are pluses that the movie has going for it. The main group not being the most likable detracts from the movie slightly but the rest of the movie and cast make up for it. It is sad that movies like this don't get a larger release but that is what Hollywood does. This movie deserves a 7/10, with a solid cast and solid story this is a worthy movie of the score.