The Carrier has an interesting premise but suffers from bad dialogue and imagery that at times borders on the narmish. After a young man is attacked by a strange beast in the woods, he is contaminated with a bizarre illness. Anyone who touches something he has touched dissolves into smoke. For a low budget film, this has some very interesting ideas. It paints a compelling portrait of a town tearing itself apart and gives interesting consideration to religion as a divisive force. However, these ideas need further development and are overwhelmed by the film's flaws.The dialogue is terrible to the point of unintentional comedy. This starts from the beginning of the film, but enters the genuinely absurd when the outbreak begins. At one point, a supporting character yells "Bring me cats!" in order to test for the disease. Furthermore, as people dress up in plastic bags to protect themselves, the overall effect is comic.This film is worth a rent or YouTube watch, but wastes a lot of potential.

Jake Spear is pretty much an outsider/ and out-of-luck lad in the small town of Sleepy Rock, and one night he's attacked by some hairy beast. Unknown to him he's infected with a mysterious, dangerous disease that spreads around the town from anything he had touch. It has not affect on him, but if anyone else touches that object/item, they begin to dissolve. Soon he realises, but the towns-folk are virtually caught up in the mass mayhem and chaos, marking those areas or items in red.Oh this was very off-kilter… so unusual. This obscure, very minor low-budget late 80s effort has you glued because you haven't see anything quite like it. The story is original (if silly and baffling), the prominent black humour fits and it's metaphorically planted with obvious details (involving AIDS) and overwrought symbolic messages (that downbeat conclusion). However it was a real nice change of pace with its glowing spirit and undeservedly lies in the shadows of the overpopulated 80s gruel. The film's cheap execution might leave a lot to be desired, as there's no tension and its tame steamy schlock effects don't make much of an impression. Still there's plenty of goodwill, and it can get atmospheric in stages. The story doesn't really know what it wants to be, despite the script's mock seriousness. As it moodily shifts about in many different fields (especially when it turns into something you'll find in an post-apocalyptic film where everyone loves cats and have a fashion sense involving plastic bags and sheets), but maintaining something unique and clever that keeps it always interesting. Gregory Fortescue's central performance is what really drove this one home. Sure his acting isn't great, but he brings the right attitude. The rest of the bungling performances (mainly one or two-offs, except for Steve Dixon) are enthusiastically delivered. Director / writer Nathan J. White's directorial touches are typical and the pace is slow, but engaging and seems to wallow in the extremely cheesy and kooky vibes. Look out for the blatant Jim Beam product placement.

For a small budget film, it has more heart and interest and originality than 90% of what passes for drama or horror coming out of Hollywood. The young actor, Gregory Fortescue, is attractive on many levels and effectively carries the film. Yes, it can be seen as an AIDS allegory....but it also presents a different take on the disaffected and confused young man...Gregory's character Jake can be seen as an AIDS victim....or as James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause...or as the Werewolf in American Werewolf in London. Unusual, original, recommended...just a little confusing at times.I found it on a bit-torrent site.Otherwise...hard to find.

Yet another example of a very workable premise reduced to flyspeck through butterfingers crafting.A young man is scratched during an attack by a mysterious forest creature, and is henceforth cursed to be "The Carrier"...any surface he touches becomes lethal to others, melting them down into a puddle of bubbly, steaming 'caput-mortuum'. Paranoia quickly takes hold of the townsfolk, and accusations fly over who exactly among them "The Carrier" might be.For some reason, the parties responsible for concocting this goofy little monster movie felt it necessary to set it during the 1950s. Truthfully, it could be taking place in the goddamn Stone-Age for all it's worth to the story...why squander a sizable portion of your already meager budget on period-setting formulations when time-frame is entirely impertinent to the structure of your narrative? All-in-all, THE CARRIER is not an unbearable or awful film, and is actually kind of fun at points. What's frustrating, though, is that the openhanded potential of the base material is only scantly realized. This could easily have been so much more than a chiefly disposable horror flick....alas, it simply is what it is, which ain't much.4.5/10