btw...although some are calling this a "zombie" movie, there are in fact no zombies in it. Rabies DOES infect humans. The people who have been bitten in this movie are not dying and reanimating and trying to eat everyone --they are supposedly displaying the madness that strikes rabid dogs and running around trying to bite everyone just as the infected dogs will.
It's difficult to imagine the reasoning behind some of the positive reviews calling this silly plot line good or effective or even just frightening. If you missed the advertising and aren't aware it's supposed to be a horror flick the beginning won't clue you in. That's actually one of the good points of the film, a fairly realistically done beginning (informational news piece on the life of a firefighter at the fire station) that provides a few glimpses of some of the man characters and allows the development of some liking and sympathy for them before getting to the action. This segment concludes with the reporter and cameraman riding along with the crew on a call involving a paramedic situation (rather than a fire) that even incorporates the nice touch of the cameraman telling the reporter "I can't slide down that pole with this camera!" and the two detouring to a run down the stairs to jump on the fire truck. The only bad points to this part of the movie was that it went on a little too long and it's impossible to believe a professional cameraman can't figure out how to focus his camera. After the news duo and firemen arrive at the dilapidated apartment building things quickly go south. the film is so DARK that the supposed tears all the victims show can't be seen, and the supposed salivating is actually vomit or blood in most cases. This rabies is scary because it causes disease in minutes instead of in "months" (rabies actually takes 3-8 weeks to develop in most people, and that's do to the physical limits of the virus moving up nerves to reach the brain, which cannot be genetically modified). (And yes, a veterinarian would know that...veterinarians know more about diseases that spread from animals to humans than medical doctors do. They have to...they're the ones most at risk to catch those diseases.)
The CDC, working with the cops, somehow seals off the building (just after the fire department people and news crew get inside) because a man who lived there took a sick pet to the veterinarian and it "ran around biting all the other animals" who started "showing aggressiveness within an hour". Does anyone reading actually think sick animals run around in one big pen in the clinic instead of being kept in separate cages? Well, maybe the sick dog was running around the waiting room biting all the other animals being held by their owners? And of course not biting the owners.....? The CDC being notified and showing up the entire length of the country away THAT fast? For an unknown disease that only affects animals (remember, they said only the animals were showing aggressiveness)? Without the local public health people ever being called in? Let's not even mention that rabies doesn't usually take the furious form (like 'mad dogs') in humans. But it gets sillier.
The CDC comes in wearing moonsuits and start taking samples to see what is causing the problem...with a drill at least 10" long they sink full length in fromt he top of the victim's head! What were they trying to get a sample of, his tonsils? BTW, rabies in living humans can be diagnosed by a sample of cerebrospinal fluid, which only requires a needle and syringe. Oh yeah, and don't forget they handcuff the guy to whatever he's lying on first. at his waist level...so of course he sits up --AFTER they obviously drilled his brain into mush and bites the other CDC guy, unhampered by handcuffs.
No end to sheer stupidity yet. The child who owned the sick dog has had a slight fever for hours, but suddenly goes nuts and bites half her mom's face off...and the cop runs after her, kneels in front of her and assures her things are OK instead of shooting her from a distance --and of course gets bitten too. The building superintendent says he has in his apartment the key to a drain cover they can all escape through (in the basement) while standing in front of glass doors they just shut to keep out an infected guy, and gets bitten. The news crew runs up the stairs after getting the key, blathering about finding a way out that way although we all know by then its not possible, find an apartment full of rodent cages and clippings about doomsday cults and turn on a reel-to-reel tape at half speed but can't tell it's voices at half speed. And the absolute corker...the CDC prevent human egress but forgets all about the mice and rats that infest every slummo house in the L.A. area...
It's difficult to imagine the reasoning behind some of the positive reviews calling this silly plot line good or effective or even just frightening. If you missed the advertising and aren't aware it's supposed to be a horror flick the beginning won't clue you in. That's actually one of the good points of the film, a fairly realistically done beginning (informational news piece on the life of a firefighter at the fire station) that provides a few glimpses of some of the man characters and allows the development of some liking and sympathy for them before getting to the action. This segment concludes with the reporter and cameraman riding along with the crew on a call involving a paramedic situation (rather than a fire) that even incorporates the nice touch of the cameraman telling the reporter "I can't slide down that pole with this camera!" and the two detouring to a run down the stairs to jump on the fire truck. The only bad points to this part of the movie was that it went on a little too long and it's impossible to believe a professional cameraman can't figure out how to focus his camera. After the news duo and firemen arrive at the dilapidated apartment building things quickly go south. the film is so DARK that the supposed tears all the victims show can't be seen, and the supposed salivating is actually vomit or blood in most cases. This rabies is scary because it causes disease in minutes instead of in "months" (rabies actually takes 3-8 weeks to develop in most people, and that's do to the physical limits of the virus moving up nerves to reach the brain, which cannot be genetically modified). (And yes, a veterinarian would know that...veterinarians know more about diseases that spread from animals to humans than medical doctors do. They have to...they're the ones most at risk to catch those diseases.)
The CDC, working with the cops, somehow seals off the building (just after the fire department people and news crew get inside) because a man who lived there took a sick pet to the veterinarian and it "ran around biting all the other animals" who started "showing aggressiveness within an hour". Does anyone reading actually think sick animals run around in one big pen in the clinic instead of being kept in separate cages? Well, maybe the sick dog was running around the waiting room biting all the other animals being held by their owners? And of course not biting the owners.....? The CDC being notified and showing up the entire length of the country away THAT fast? For an unknown disease that only affects animals (remember, they said only the animals were showing aggressiveness)? Without the local public health people ever being called in? Let's not even mention that rabies doesn't usually take the furious form (like 'mad dogs') in humans. But it gets sillier.
The CDC comes in wearing moonsuits and start taking samples to see what is causing the problem...with a drill at least 10" long they sink full length in fromt he top of the victim's head! What were they trying to get a sample of, his tonsils? BTW, rabies in living humans can be diagnosed by a sample of cerebrospinal fluid, which only requires a needle and syringe. Oh yeah, and don't forget they handcuff the guy to whatever he's lying on first. at his waist level...so of course he sits up --AFTER they obviously drilled his brain into mush and bites the other CDC guy, unhampered by handcuffs.
No end to sheer stupidity yet. The child who owned the sick dog has had a slight fever for hours, but suddenly goes nuts and bites half her mom's face off...and the cop runs after her, kneels in front of her and assures her things are OK instead of shooting her from a distance --and of course gets bitten too. The building superintendent says he has in his apartment the key to a drain cover they can all escape through (in the basement) while standing in front of glass doors they just shut to keep out an infected guy, and gets bitten. The news crew runs up the stairs after getting the key, blathering about finding a way out that way although we all know by then its not possible, find an apartment full of rodent cages and clippings about doomsday cults and turn on a reel-to-reel tape at half speed but can't tell it's voices at half speed. And the absolute corker...the CDC prevent human egress but forgets all about the mice and rats that infest every slummo house in the L.A. area...