Carriers (2009) Dir: Àlex Pastor & David Pastor
- Ridley Coote
- 22 hours ago
- 2 min read
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Infection-based horror films, be they zombie or not, are a dime a dozen, but I still like to check them out, on occasion. This one was directed by Àlex Pastor and David Pastor, whose only other significant film was the 'Bird Box' sequel, the meek reception of which hardly helped my low expectations. That said, films like these can be surprisingly entertaining.
Whilst this wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, it was still a very generic contagion horror . The film was extremely tropy, and relied heavily on storylines that have been done by others, and better. Having said that, the film was not without positives; for one, I thought that the film was a good length - a shade under ninety minutes - and I felt that it was paced well. Nothing dragged, in any case.
The narrative, though lacking in creativity, was fine. It did nothing particularly shocking or unexpected, but it also didn't do anything too poorly. Unfortunately, I do think this film was limited by its own attempts to play it safe. I actually think it could've been much better if the writers tried to do something a little different with it - I'd rather watch a weird film that I'd remember, than a generic one I'd forget about soon after the credits rolled.
Chris Pine had the most notable performance of anyone in the film, which is no real surprise, considering his career trajectory at this point in time. His character's arrogance came naturally to him, but he still managed to provide some believable emotions too, particularly in the second half of the film.
Lou Taylor Pucci was the other actor who felt really prominent in the film, particularly when it came to the second half of the film. Pucci, much like his character, grew into the film fairly nicely, I thought. I don't think he had the presence, or anything like it, of Pine, but he did at least feel quite genuine emotionally speaking.
Piper Perabo and Emily VanCamp tried to create performances out of admittedly very sparsely written characters. They weren't given a whole lot of opportunities to show more personality than their basic characters would allow. Of the two, I thought that Perabo acquitted herself better, and comfortably so, but honestly it was frustrating to find that both women's roles were paper-thin.
Christopher Meloni and a very young Kiernan Shipka were the only other cast members with roles significant enough to warrant a mention. For what it's worth, I actually thought both did a fairly good job, particularly Shipka, despite her age. Meloni had some pretty good moments during his final scenes in the film.
Overall, whilst I certainly wouldn't say that I will be rushing to revisit the film any time soon, I also don't think it was the worst use of an evening ever. Generic as it was, it had its moments, and it wasn't half as bad as some of the other horror films I've seen lately. It's not ecactly a film that will challenge its audience, but then, not everyone wants that, and not every film needs or wants to do that - it's a fine film to watch with friends.
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