The Plague (2006) (V)

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Director:

Hal Masonberg

Writers (WGA):

Hal Masonberg (written by) &
Teal Minton (written by)

Release Date:

24 October 2006 (France)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Ten years have passed since the world's children have fallen into a coma. Tonight they're waking up and all hell is breaking loose. An un-holy battle between the generations is being waged against all adults, and time is not on their side.

Plot Keywords:

Death Of Daughter | Child With Gun | Death Of Family | Shootout | Thrown Through Window

Cast

James Van Der Beek	...	Tom Russell
Ivana Milicevic	...	Jean Raynor
Brad Hunt	...	Sam Raynor
Joshua Close	...	Kip (as Josh Close)
John P. Connolly	...	Sheriff Cal Stewart (as John Connolly)
Dee Wallace	...	Nora
Brittany Scobie	...	Claire
Bradley Sawatzky	...	deputy Nathan Burgandy
Jon Ted Wynne	...	Dr. Jenkins
Arne MacPherson	...	David
Gene Pyrz	...	Jim
Genevieve Pelletier	...	Nurse Daniels
Chad Panting	...	Eric Russell
David Stuart Evans	...	Intern (as David Evans)
Jan Skene	...	Nurse Hansen

Also Known As:

Clive Barker's The Plague (Australia) (DVD box title)

MPAA:

Rated R for horror violence/gore and language.

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:MA (2006) | Australia:MA | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

Company:

Armada Pictures

Movie Connections:

References Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Dawson Versus The Damned.

Although the premise isn't original or innovating ("Village of the Damned", "Children of the Damned", "Who Can Kill a Child", "The Children of Ravensbeck"…), I'm always enthusiast about a horror movie revolving on murderous – and whether or not zombified – children, but you always have to bear in mind that a concept such as this could be bound to a lot of restrictions as well. Let's face it, the idea of murdering children and/or children getting murdered remains a fairly sensitive topic and especially nowadays filmmakers don't always have the courage to depict everything in great detail. Another big issue is that the scripts are rarely ever strong enough to come up with an explanation that is simultaneously disturbing and plausible. "The Plague", which is somehow linked to the creative writing mastermind Clive Barker, is fairly adequate and satisfying when it comes to dealing with the first issue (there are some very graphic child murders here), but it miserably fails in the plotting department. I just finished watching the film five minutes ago, but please don't ask me to summarize the plot. The film benefits from a handful of really powerful sequences and an occasionally unsettling apocalyptic atmosphere, but the screenplay is incredibly disorderly, incoherent and it explains absolutely nothing at all. On a seemingly average day, all the children on the earth under the age of 9 fall into a coma. Twice a day, like clockwork, they all start twitching together but the reasons for that are anyone's guesses as well. Then, as spontaneously as they fell into a coma, they all awake ten years later as mad zombies and promptly begin to exterminate all the adults for … you guessed it … no apparent reason whatsoever. The film follows a small group of people's quest for survival in a quiet little US town, among them an ex-married couple (Ivana Milicevic and James "Dawson" Van Der Beek in a totally unconvincing performance), a couple of cops and a pair of adolescents who're spiritually linked to the children. The sequences illustrating the zombie children prowling the deserted streets for adults to kill are reasonably effective and creepy, as well as the make-up jobs on their faces, but the film never achieves to be truly terrifying.