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Carriers uses the well-worn tropes of zombie movies to give us something that goes much deeper than your typical Friday night frightfest. Chris Pine (Star Trek) stars as Brian, older brother to Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci) and de facto leader of the ragtag team of four driving across America trying to outrun the virus that's decimated the human population that includes Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) and Emily VanCamp (Everwood). The landscape is bare, and when they do run into other uninfected humans, the trouble is much more visceral and insidious than any zombie could ever hope to inflict. The supplies are becoming much harder to procure and the desperation is eating away at the bonds of the ragtag team.

To lay all my cards on the table, I am a sucker for zombie movies. They are far and away my favorite movie monster because zombie movies, if they're done right, are never about the zombies. The zombies are symbols, allergories for what the director truly wants to talk about. Romero's Dawn of the Dead had zombies attacking survivors in a mall, not because it would be fun to see a zombie eating someone in the food court, but the director wanted the audience to examine the effect our rampant, mindless consumerism was having on our abilities to think for ourselves. And in Carriers, the point isn't how fast we can run from the zombies (in fact, there's nary a zombie to be seen in the movie), but to ask who are we at the core of ourselves?
The movie posits that how we react in a crisis is who we really are, no tricks, no everyday niceties to blur the face we try to keep only to ourselves. We get two brothers who embody to very different reactions and the directors, Alex and David Pastor asks us, which one do we relate to? Pine's Brian is the isolationist; he has decided that compassion and mercy will only get you infected and you must, at all costs, look out for yourself. The younger brother, Danny, is obviously the soft touch, hesitating in tense moments because he can't decide whether the idea of looking out for only yourself is justifiable even in such an extreme situation as he finds himself in, or if compassion should always win out, no matter what's going on around you. I found myself identifying with both brothers; I understood why Brian hardened himself to the plight of others, he cared about ensuring the survival of his loved ones and if you don't look out for yourself, someone other ruthless jerk will certainly take advantage of you. But I cannot turn my back on the concepts of empathy, compassion and mercy. How can I see someone I can help and turn my back?

Carriers doesn't have much in the way of jump out of your seat frights, but what it does have in spades are intelligent questions that challenge the viewer to think, exactly, what would I do in that situation? How would I respond to such an epic call to arms? I think anyone looking for not only a good time, but an intelligent thriller should definetly give Carriers a try.

Carriers was written and directed by Alex and David Postman and is now available on dvd.