In the brutal world of Hollywood, some movies end up sitting on a shelf for years. Others get only a limited release. Carriers — the thriller from directors Alex and David Pastor that follows Star Trek's Chris Pine and a group of survivors as they travel cross country to find a place safe from the virus that has plagued the country — suffers both.
Carriers waited three years before getting its September 4 release date, which looks to be only a limited release for the following cities: Philadelphia, Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Denver, Minneapolis, Portland, Charlotte, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh. No reason was given for why Carriers is foregoing the larger markets of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
The movie has a promising trailer and a plot that seems to be the dramatic flip side of the upcoming zombie comedy Zombieland. However, while the Pastor brothers see Carriers as a horror movie, they don't want it to be confused for a zombie flick.
We definitely wanted to stay away from the zombie genre, and even if many people who've seen the trailer will think that there are zombies in the movie, there really aren't. In Carriers, when you catch the virus, you get sick and eventually die. They don't chase you down hallways! We wanted to make a film where the enemy was not something alien and external (zombies, vampires, etc., even if we love these genres), but something much closer: other people and, eventually, our own worst instincts. The virus is what turns people against each other, in their struggle to survive. That's not to say that there aren't scary moments in the movie. There are!
Given Carriers' history, it seems odd for the directors to discourage zombie fans from embracing the movie — even if it is just fans in 10 select cites.
Posted 08.26.09 by Ryan