The Carrier

This sounded mildly intriguing so we gave it a whirl. How I wish we hadn't. It started off OK, but quickly revealed itself as a very cheaply-made straight-to-video formula horror/thriller. It looked as though it may have been a pilot for a TV serial that never got made (can't think why). Most of the characters are either useless and unreliable or just plain psychos, like 'Eric' who goes around wrecking the group's chances of survival. According to the end credits, it was filmed 'around the back of B&Q in Basildon' or something like that. Avoid.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this review. I've spent far too much time on this film already. Perhaps I just want to warn people that this is not a very entertaining film and not just because of the grim subject matter.

It was so annoying that everyone was acting stupid, I wanted to punch my screen watching this!

Aside from the first couple of minutes (which were actually fairly promising, as a mother and her son try to escape London and the soldiers who were shooting anyone trying to get out of the city after the outbreak of a deadly disease) I was confused from the very beginning of this movie. Made in 2015, it depicts a global pandemic that makes the Covid-19 pandemic look minor league. This disease is caused by resistance to over-prescribed antibiotics, has no cure or treatment, begins by disfiguring those who get infected and then eventually kills everyone it touches. That much was clear - but what confused me was the plane. Not because all travel in and out of the UK and all flights were prohibited. I get that there are still planes and some people will be able to access them no matter what. But why this particular group. The captain, Tobias (Edmund Kingsley) said that he had a "select" group of passengers. But why? In what way? They really didn't seem all that "select" to me. So I was confused by - why these people, in this plane and at this time? And that was never really clarified.

But beyond that, it just wasn't an especially interesting or original movie. The description makes you think that there's going to be some sort of outbreak on the plane that makes the flight horrific, but really most of the action takes place once the plane lands to refuel and gets attacked by the infected - and even the attacks are dealt with fairly easily. I will say that I was intrigued by the character of Eric (Joe Dixon.) He was clearly being portrayed as the "bad guy" but there were other times when he was quite relatable, and even his motives at times seemed quite noble - basically - "you can't go anywhere because you'll infect anyone.) Aside from him, though, none of the characters were especially interesting. As far as the story goes, I didn't understand the need for the second plane and the flirtatious exchanges between Tobias and the other (female) pilot. The story didn't need that. And, sure, a few people die - you expect that - but while it portrayed (mostly through the dialogue of the characters) a world gone completely to hell, frankly, with bodies being burned in the open and a desperate and frightened population, it just seemed to be lacking much in the way of real intensity, and it ended up being a movie I could watch (thankfully it's fairly short) but not really get engrossed in. (4/10)

The idea had potential, but I think it just missed for me. The pandemic has taught us that people WOULD in fact be idiots, and try and jump on a plane despite the risk to others. So the very idea of this film is a solid one.

The problem is the characters were bland and one dimensional, and I don't feel the film had any real focus, or real ending. Like there were some very good ideas going on, but they needed developing more, and the film needed more focus on deciding what it wanted to be. It started off very reasonable, but then just went flat.

The other issue I had is the acting was a little all over the place. Some points seemed overacted, where as other actors felt flat/stiff. I wish the film had more going for it, because the concept is a good one.