Evidently Minneapolis is a horror hotbed, as while the newly released horror film Carriers only debuted on ~100 screens nationwide, it somehow managed to make it to 8 screens just in the Twin Cities alone. That seems like a bit of over saturation for a market not exactly know as a gore hound local. This miscalculation seemed to be reinforced when Anna and I went to go see the film at 10am and only two others were present in the theatre. Interesting enough, with the film being put in Southdale’s smallest theatre it almost felt like we were in our own living room. Those types of close quarters should play pretty well for horror films, yet Carriers tried quite hard to not be a horror film.
The biggest issue with Carriers is that it isn’t scary, at all. In fact, its so sappy and sweet that I’d be hard pressed to cal it a horror film at all, as it focuses more on how the relationship’s between the four main characters are barely hanging on, making the film much closer to a melodrama. Think Revolutionary Road with a case of whooping cough and less attractive clothing.
And while that is an interesting idea for a horror film to take, and one that probably could make for a compelling film, these characters were so bland and the dialogue was so awful, that I spent most of the running time just hoping some sort of threat would appear and start hunting them so at least something interesting would finally start happening.
Don’t be fooled by the trailer, any bit of action or suspense in Carriers is crammed into that two minute block, as the vast majority of the film is spent watching our protagonists trying to decide if they will leave someone behind. Someone, I might add, that is so vapid and annoying that they are not worth wasting so much time and energy on, let alone an entire movie.
That’s too bad. I was looking forward to this one.