Carriers
In a previous article I had brought up the film Carriers, which was released in theaters in early September and just released on DVD December 8. I was excited for Carriers, expecting it to be a brilliant thriller and a great character drama.
I was not disappointed. Although it might not be the best thriller this year (Paranormal Activity seems to be clinching that spot), that’s mainly because Carriers is not, at its core, a thriller. The horror aspects of it have very little to do with the virus itself that has left the towns barren; rather, it’s in the actions of the characters that the terror lies.
Appropriately, we don’t learn much of the back story of this virus. All we really need to know about it is revealed very quickly in a shot where the main characters drive through the silent streets of a city, passing by a garbage truck overloaded with body bags. There’s a couple more scraps that are revealed, but beyond its effects there is little of importance to be learned about it. The focus is almost entirely on the four main characters, unlike other post-apocalypse films like 28 Days Later, where the focus is split between the characters and the abandoned world or the Mad Max series, which is more based around the action.
Speaking of the characters, there’s very few of them. Beyond the four main characters- Brian, Danny, Bobby, and Kate- there’s few who are referred to by name, and one of them is already dead. The stories of these secondary characters are hinted at, but they themselves are not as important as the way that the survivors interact with them.
The two most well-developed characters are by far Brian and Danny- brothers, the older having the brawn and the younger having the brains. The protective instincts of an older sibling are in full view here, as Brian is a dominating, almost fatherly role for almost the entire film. Bobby, his girlfriend, plays into this; Danny is a product of the world as it was, unwilling to act in the new world like his brother is. The only character who isn’t developed enough is Kate, who is very much an enigma, sitting somewhere between Brian’s willingness to do what it takes and Danny’s clinging to a dead way of living.
All of the actors were good, and Chris Pine is particularly outstanding. Although Paramount had delayed the release of Carriers until after Star Trek was out so that there’d be some name recognition for Chris Pine, his performance is far stronger than in the blockbuster. Lou Taylor Pucci, who plays Danny, is also noteworthy, and Law & Order‘s Christopher Meloni is great as Frank, who is desperately trying to save his infected daughter and at the same time shield her from the terrors of the brutal world.
The music is haunting, as it should be. It feels somewhat minimal, a tragic and lonely score. The same goes for the scenery. There’s a massive feeling of isolation. The southwestern landscapes lend themselves wonderfully to this, where the only hints of civilization are the lonesome road and power lines cutting across a beautiful flatland littered with bushes and boulders and mountains in the distance.
This desolation is the depressing theme of the film. Carriers is not a hopeful story; there’s little to be said for redemption or salvation, and the ending is a display of pessimistic nihilism. As Brian says early on, “no more fairytales.”
All things considered, it’s a bleak film that is exceptionally well-done, more in the line of Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road than many other post-apocalyptic films. Well worth seeing, Carriers gets a score of 7 out of 10 from me.
