Creepy 'Carriers' crafts cognitive chronicle

September 6, 9:59 AMPhoenix Movie ExaminerJoseph J. Airdo

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Piper Perabo, Chris Pine, Lou Taylor Pucci and Emily VanCamp
star in Paramount Vantage's "Carriers."

"Carriers" may not feature a famous cinematic serial killer or intricately detailed accidents that cause explicitly gory deaths, but the unpleasant movie about a viral pandemic easily earns the title of the scariest movie currently playing in theaters.

After sitting on the shelf for a few years due to inside studio dealings, Paramount Vantage's "Carriers" has finally been granted a limited release. Phoenix is one of the fortunate markets to see the dramatic thriller's theatrical distribution. And smart moviegoers will rush to the multiplex to watch this independent film's eerie tale of post-mass destruction play out on the big screen before the fall season's bigger blockbusters cause its extinction.

“Carriers” stars Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Lou Taylor Pucci and Emily VanCamp as four young adults trying to simply stay alive. They are among the last survivors of a viral pandemic that has spread across the entire planet. However, catching the bug is not their only concern. The foursome must also fend off looters and other selfish survivors who have resorted to survival-of-the-fittest tactics.

Driving down isolated desert roads, they come across a man (Christopher Meloni) and his ill daughter (Kiernan Shipka) who are in desperate need of fuel for their vehicle. One wrong move forces both groups into one vehicle setting off a chain of events that will eventually tear the foursome apart at the seams.

"Carriers" is certainly strongest during its first few scenes when the audience is still becoming accustomed to the apocalyptic atmosphere that writers/directors Alex and David Pastor have created. Nobody knows what to expect yet and the unknown is always an uneasy proposition. In addition, the audience is thrown right into the midst of the depressing situation. There is no cheesy setup revealing how something this tragic could have happened. There is just the promise of survival if all rules are followed... "maybe."

And no setup is needed, either, because this end-of-the-world story could really happen. There will always be skeptics when it comes to alien invasions, brain-eating zombies and the like but extermination by infectious disease seems pretty believable. Anyone heard of the bird flu? How about the swine flu? After all, shoppers did exhaust many retailers' supply of respiratory masks similar to those worn by the characters in "Carriers."

My point is that this is pretty scary stuff. And although the running time of "Carriers" is barely 80 minutes, the filmmakers take time to develop the plot. "Carriers" never turns into some mindless action flick but instead relies on psychological fear to constantly up the ante. Ultimately, this is a story about the characters' reaction to the disease rather than story about the disease itself.

All four lead actors turn in wonderful performances of four very well-defined characters. Each one has something different to bring to the table - especially when it comes to the scale of pessimism vs. optimism. And that is where this good movie becomes great. "Carriers" gives its audience something to think about. How do you find hope when it is a discredited theory?

But it is also enormously entertaining. Actually, the only bad thing about "Carriers" is its trailer, which gives moviegoers the false impression that the feature film may evolve into a zombie flick. By no stretch of the imagination does this movie belong to the horror genre. Rather, it is a methodical thriller about the humanity's response to its own demise. And, as the movie suggests, that is the most terrifying monster of all.