Film Review: Plaguers (2008)

SYNOPSIS:

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.

REVIEW:

Directed By: Brad Sykes
Written By: Brad Sykes
Starring: Steve Railsback, Alexis Zibolis, Bobby James, Noelle Perris, Jared Michaels

Space exploration has always brought up the question, “Is there existence of living organisms outside planet Earth.” Many Sci-Fi accounts of what could be out there always gives us a sense of horror in wondering if one day we do find a type of existence that could be distinct from our very own. Would these beings be helpful or destructive? Featuring the tag-line “In space, nothing stays dead forever,” Brad Sykes’s Plaguers is a space odyssey that indeed finds alien material in the form of a deadly virus. However, this element that has been discovered leads to a destructive pathway to destruction of human life on planet Earth as we know it.

Captain Darian Holloway (Alexis Zibolis) is a young and newly single head of USS Pandora. Her ex-fiancée is shown in a glass tomb, and after his death, she is forced to run the ship. Holloway plays a very powerful leader, and makes her presence known when crewmates question her authority. After receiving a call of distress from a neighboring ship, Holloway forces ship driver Briggs (Chad Nell) to hitch on to the seemingly abandoned ship. Sending shipmate Riley (Jared Michaels) onto the what was thought to be empty USS Diana, he finds four shaken and beautiful women adorned in purple mini-skirted jump suits and silver platform boots. The women all look traumatized, as Holloway orders Riley to help them board back on to the USS Pandora.

After feeding the women dinner, the head of the women, Kyra (Noelle Perris), claims that their ship had been attacked by space pirates. The women are then checked out for damage, and after all the kindness the USS Pandora’s crew gives them, they turn on them and hold the crew hostage. The women of the USS Diana imprison the crew of USS Pandora, and only Riley is still on the loose. After a brief skirmish between USS Diana’s Nola (Stephanie Skewes) and only remaining free person of the USS Pandora’s Riley, Nola rolls into the glowing green orb of Thanatos being held on the ship, immediately turning her into a space-alien-demon creature. One by one, shipmates from each crew becomes infected by the virus through being bitten by one who was already infected. The two crews are forced reconcile their differences to fight the Thanatos virus to reaching planet Earth by finding a way to escape the ship, and then destroy the ship to be rid of the virus forever.

The special effects were cheesy in times, in which you see two ships that looked like toy replicas against a black CGI imprinted starry sky. The explosions and blow torch weapons were also a comical accompaniment to the CGI travesty. However, I thought the F/X makeup on the undead alien creatures was done well, as they were oozing all kinds of blood and slime.

Their sharp pointy teeth stuck clear out of their mouths, and would move a little bit quicker than the traditional zombie undead. Only until we see the super creature at the end of the film that the budget must of ran out because the alien monster looks like something right out of the old school Sci-Fi flicks. There was also very little blood and gore for people being ripped apart by the alien- undead. What blood is shown is very dark red, almost black, or on the front of the alien undead clothes.

The set design looked futuristic and well done at the beginning. Towards the end, however, the doors being broken through by the alien creatures looked flimsy and made out of cardboard. Also, the actresses that were playing the women from the USS Diana were all clearly hired on because of attractiveness versus actual acting ability, as it was agonizing to watch their acting skills. The music did very little for the film, as sometimes it was chaotic and adventurous to accompany chase scenes. The story line was simplistic to follow, as we see many fictional sci-fi movies that have a crew encountering things that we have never experienced before.

Plaguers had the look and feel as if it were a made-for-TV movie, with very little gratuitous violence and gore. My recommendation is if you don’t like Sci-Fi movies, Plaguers would not be a good pick based on watching a good horror flick dealing with the undead. Brad Sykes’s futuristic endeavor is a mix of what we were immersed back when plagues devastated millions in the 1300’s from rats to the present “what could happen” situation of finding other carriers of a deadly virus that could possibly wipe most of human existence as we know it.