Plaguers (2008) 10th Anniversary Edition Review
Plaguers (2008) 10th Anniversary Edition Review
When a band of sexy space pirates hijack a fuel-transport vessel bound for Earth, an alien virus known only as “Thanatos” is accidentally released. The contagion mutates its victims, transforming them one after another into ravenous, demonic creatures. Pirates and crew must join together to destroy the undead PLAGUERS as the ship nears Earth, threatening to infect the entire planet.
Brad Sykes, writer and director of PLAGUERS, says that his movie was inspired by Lamberto Bava’s DEMONI. He wanted to capture that film’s ‘wild energy’ and even had his cast watch the wonderful mid-Eighties Italian horror classic to get a feel for the vibe he wished to create. This is evident as the infected’s make-up definitely brings to mind the beasties from Bava’s flick and it’s not the only film Sykes has paid homage to with his sci-fi horror. ALIEN is evidently another HUGE influence on this film, there’s the darkened interiors of the space craft, the crew responding to a distress call from a derelict ship and an android amongst their numbers.
In fact there’s a number of influences on this film, there’s also the sequel ALIENS, John Carpenter’s version of THE THING as well as the same director’s underrated PRINCE OF DARKNESS. What Sykes film sadly lacks are any fresh ideas of his own. It also lacks the necessary budget to deliver the goods onscreen and consequently ends up looking like a low-budgeted Nineties horror and not a very good one at that.
Apparently PLAGUERS is considered a cult classic, hence this 10th Anniversary re-release, but I fail to see how, but what do I know? After all, Sykes movie did win the award for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Feature at the 2008 Mid-Ohio-Con Film Festival as well as the Silver Unicorn for Best Screenplay at the Ninth Edition of the Estepona International Fantasy and Horror Film Festival in the same year. I found it an endurance test to sit through; it wasn’t even bad enough to qualify as a ‘good’ bad movie.
It’s one of those film’s where someone complains that they need to get a move on as they only have an hour’s worth of air left but took time out, during such a critical period, to have some snog time with someone else. The film’s poster art is fun but the film itself is not, so please do not be suckered in. Genre favourite Steve Railsback (Tobe Hooper’s LIFEFORCE) looks bored throughout the film and the chances are that you will be too.
