User reviews

The world is going to hell in an antibiotic-resistant- plague powered hand cart. Soldiers are shooting people dead on the street and the suburban houses of the infected are set a blaze.

A bunch of people manage to get aboard a plane and make a dash for it. Locked in to a confided environment, with the potential of infection aboard and the world burning below, this is dynamite.

Production, acting and writing are sufficient to carry all this off and is very tense and moving in places.

Happy days?

No. The problem with this film is the plot. To unfold the way it does the characters have to make one shockingly ill-thought out choice after another. You know in horror films when the guy goes down in to the cellar on his own just to find out what that scrapping noise is? Well every single character in this film does this, about every six minutes.

This sounds nit-picky for what is essentially a sci-fi film; but it is so annoying it distracts from the film.

"Hey Gary I'm just going to pop out and have a chat with this guy who has been trying to kill us for the last twenty minutes."

"Right-oh Fred, want to take this gun with you mate?"

"No I'm sure it will be fine. Just sneeze into my mouth for good luck"

The ending reaches an appropriate climax but I was left wondering what was the point in it all.

Good acting and production hung on a distorted framework.

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.

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

Was drawn into seeing 'The Carrier', with a cool poster/cover, a promising trailer, an intriguing premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre it fits under. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws present in those films are here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'The Carrier' is weak with not much point to it, with so many huge flaws and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is very little to recommend in 'The Carrier'.

Lets start with the positives. Some of the acting is okay considering what was given to them. The production values had atmosphere and didn't look too cheap.

'The Carrier' also starts off reasonably promisingly, it does intrigue and it does have creepiness.

Going on to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it comes over as vague and under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less unsettled and never gaining momentum. All the characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. The chemistry lacks character or punch.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and some of the acting seemed unsure. The effects can be ropy.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace and film lacks tightness after such an intriguing start and doesn't recover. Found too many of the supposedly shocking moments not surprising and very bland and the atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of idiotic and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Thrills are none, thanks to stodginess and excessive over-familiarity, and found myself never invested in the drama, which tended to be overacted and statically directed.

A lot of 'The Carrier' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you shocked are far from creative or unsettling.

Everything is unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of dread. The thriller elements fail to thrill and are very predictable and the drama is overwrought. Some badly sagging momentum too and a lot of weirdness. The direction is leaden, got the sense their heart was not in it.

Overall, weak but not without redeeming merits. 3/10 Bethany Cox

In the film "The carrier" it follows a group of survivors fleeing of a pandemic. The Film takes the Virus and tries to convince the audience the pandemic is really an apocalyptic moment. The film has every thing a large military presence,news reports about the infected. Then you see the infected with reflexes and reasoning as those unaffected by the virus. The deference is they have tumors growing across their faces. If the "infected don't bother you" the kills will. No one in the film seems to know how to check for pulse. The film relies heavily on bringing back what ever thing they just thought was dead as a action sequence. It gets to the point every act repeats it's self on the next. I was expecting the film to have a plot twist but it only disappointed.

For the frightened characters this film is a harrowing plane journey away from disease and death, for the viewer it is an enjoyable flight from superstar blockbusters. In a world where computer effects replace stories and superstar names replace actors, this film attempts to tell a story with honesty and consideration. No overuse of cartoonish CGI, no wisecracking superhero, in fact most scenes don't even have loud music pumping through them because there is actually proper dialogue to listen too instead. What music there is is always well-placed and appropriate, especially the gentler compositions. Certainly, some scenes and situations have been done before, but thats because such scenes are realistic and at any rate, that 'criticism' applies to all movies. Indeed, to all art. This absorbing movie does try to take a couple of unexpected decisions that work well. The Carrier also manages to give the impression of being just one story in a whole complex world of other stories. That in itself is a rare and highly commendable thing.

The ending is the perfect consequence of what has gone before. In summary, this a a good take on the pandemic setting; a more than acceptable script is complemented by good performances all round and good use is made of the limited setting.

The fact that Billy Clarke isn't an acting superstar is a sure sign that mainstream cinema is in a deep crisis of quality. I'd take The Carrier over SuperDuperMegaHeroPowerMan6 any day, purely on the basis that it is much, much better.

Not a great movie by any stretch, but merely a somewhat good movie. My wife got this having no idea of the ratings, and I had read about it, expecting some utter crap movie. Honestly is is quite watchable, a bit low budget, but not nearly a bad movie. It is somewhat suspenseful and was a really good rainy weekend movie!

I think some of the really bad reviews are not real. A solid 5.5-6 movie. Acting is okay, effects a bit mediocre, but the music, filming and story are all fairly decent. The movie really got interesting after they got out of the sky and onto the ground! I wanted to lend a real view of this movie. So to sum up,a DECENT rental, you would do far worse. It is English made, and features and English cast, so those that are unable to watch anything that is not USA made or Big budget, just pass it by. For the rest, that want a good movie, give it a try!

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.

There are some interesting little set pieces here that, at the very least, keep the watcher interested. However the big problem is that the writers have a basic concept of 'plague on a plane' and no idea of how to flesh out the story, the characters or how to end the film.

The action is wooden, the character motivations are strange, to say the least, random things happen like people turn up to shoot at people and then just disappear.

However the scene with 'the arm' is quite harrowing, the opening scene is full of suspense and the counter play with the other pilot is well done. Shame they couldn't knit it all together.

It's quite remarkable that this film was released just six years ago, as it bears a striking resemblance to the style of George A. Romero's horror films from the 1980s. The cinematography, production design, characters, and dialogue all echo Romero's iconic works and lack originality. The film features all the familiar tropes: a group of survivors escaping an infection, internal conflicts, a stubborn individual insisting on his own way, characters compromising the group's safety for personal interests, and the inevitable encounters with the infected during supply runs. These sub-themes have been seen before, suggesting that the film offers no new concepts.

The director's lack of ambition to rival films such as World War Z and 28 Days Later is commendable. These projects were in a different league, both in class and budget. Aware of his own talent and financial constraints, he likely maximized the potential of the resources available to him. Had the writing been more original and engaging, the movie might have elevated its entertainment value. The script remains lackluster, despite the plot progressing at a reasonable pace.

I didn't dislike this movie too much. It is what it is: a low-budget addition to the apocalyptic survival thriller genre. You can AVOID it.

This movie had potential, I will definitely say that much.

But it ended up being a less than mediocre movie, because it turned out to have a storyline where you just don't immerse yourself.

The characters were flat and one-dimensional, and that ultimately started to quickly deflate the movie. Why would you immerse yourself into the movie and its universe if you didn't care about the characters that were in that particular universe?

"The Carrier" had fairly good acting performances, despite the actors and actresses having very little to work with.

The storyline in "The Carrier" was straight forward, although somewhat idiotic as flying around in an airplane is a very temporary means to such a disaster. as fuel becomes a crucial factor very fast.

There wasn't a particularly present feeling of a threat from whatever that infection was. And was a crippling anchor around the movie.

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.

In today's world of big budget movies and special effects, it's sometimes nice to sit at home and watch a DVD of a local British film. This low budget horror movie has a terrific trailer and I'm a sucker for a good trailer. The Carrier doesn't even feel low budget, so well done to the producers and crew. Anthony Woodley has gone a good job directing.

The Carrier is about surviving passengers on a 747 - no vampires, no zombies, nothing grotesque which made it stand out. The pace starts slow, builds through lots of tension and makes you jump. The cast do a commendable job and this is definitely one of the better horror movies I have seen in recent years

So nice to have an apocalyptic movie without mindless, flesh-eating monsters...no, it's eminently more satisfying to have the 'villians' in a movie be good old-fashioned, self-centered humans. The whole premise of the film is that the world is coming to an end because of human selfishness...in this case, overusing antibiotics which creates a lethal super-bug with no cure. In an effort to stem the tide of the disease, governments have quarantined the populace, halting all traffic from leaving the country. The message is clear...to save the 'body' of humanity, one must 'cut off' (or sacrifice) the offending part, a theme that is revisited often in the film, both figuratively and literally. But of course, no one listens and they all try to leave, infected or not, even killing in the process. Only one man realizes what a successful escape would mean for the world, and pleads with the others to not spread the disease, but is called crazy. The theme would run all through the film until the very end...but what is the ultimate message ? A nicely nuanced film that examines human priorities and what it means to sacrifice a part to save the whole. Oh, and the makeup FX was certainly good.

Certainly not less than a 6 for me this film and to be honest, in my opinion this is a pretty decent production.

Though I fail to see directly where the film's stated estimated £3 million budget comes from or goes as such, unless the cost of using the plane for the main set piece used a big chunk, nothing about this film indicates or shows it to directly be a relatively budget based film. As simply put the production values are great on this film.

The story is fairly solid as is the acting throughout for the best part even if a few dodgy aspects towards the end of the film. Though a better back story to the film would have been good to see even if to add just several minutes more to the running time. Yet another film I fail to see or understand the low average rating for as certainly 1 of the best budget films I've ever seen.

Realistically crappy decision-making by decent actors most all with Aussie/British accents save for an Africanoid couple, from the makes of it. Definitely not a slow-burn movie, as it starts with action and suspense. Sure, an infected mother wants her son to live in like the very first minute no seconds of the movie, but the altruism stops there. Why people already infected still obsess over hijacking planes of all things, is a hidden metaphor for our times where people take binary sides - in this situation, remaining privileged not yet infected vs the already infected. Can't help but wonder how the passengers who were on the plane got on it - were they just travelling for business/pleasure when the outbreak started, or were they already on the run and perhaps thought getting on a plane was their best bet to flee the plague? Obviously they were headed from London to Greenland, but didn't make it cause at least one passenger decided the plane was the... Carrier.