Filmed in upstate Michigan by writer / director / executive producer Nathan J. White and company, the interesting, symbolic "The Carrier" is a regional, independent horror film worth checking out. While undeniably very low budget and fairly crude, it does live up to the word "horror". It shows just how ugly things can get in times of crisis when there are no real leaders. It has a certain intensity, fueled by a sense of paranoia. In that sense, it's reminiscent of "The Thing" as well as George Romeros' "The Crazies", with its plot of a biological terror striking fear into the hearts of God fearing small town Americans.

Gregory Fortescue stars as Jake Spear, a young man who lives on the fringes of the small town of Sleepy Rock. Most other people there treat him like crap, because they 100% believe him guilty of the long ago deaths of his parents. One of a select few who will actually talk to him is Treva (Stevie Lee). One night, Jake is attacked by a fabled "black thing" which badly scratches him. Unbeknownst to Jake, this has now caused him to be infected with a truly hideous disease, making him "the carrier" of the title. And this disease has a quick acting, frightening ability to dissolve its victims. The local doctor (Steve Dixon, "Mosquito") urges calm and reason, but to little avail.

The acting is largely negligible, but there's no denying the sincerity of the cast. Fortescue and Lee are reasonably appealing, Dixon is fine as the doctor, and Paul Urbanski and Patrick Butler come off fairly well as the guys in charge of two warring factions. Die hard genre fans will recognize the names of some of the crew, like composer Joseph LoDuca, who contributes a very fine score, and cinematographer Peter Deming. B movie icon Bruce Campbell is credited as a sound effects recordist. The scenery & atmosphere are nice, the visuals striking (citizens must wrap themselves in whatever material they can find),and the special effects passable for whatever they cost to make. The subject matter has some poignancy and will undoubtedly make its viewers think of things like AIDS, which was very much on peoples' minds during this decade.

"The Carrier" is somewhat obscure now, but it definitely merits a look from horror enthusiasts.

Seven out of 10.

Jake Spear (Gregory Fortescue) lives on the outskirts of the small town of Sleepy Rock, where he is ostracized by the locals who believe that he killed his parents. When Jake is mauled by a mysterious, hairy, black beast (which melts when shot),he becomes infected with a virus that spreads via touch: not only are Jake's fingers lethal, but any inanimate object he makes contact with also becomes deadly, the victim dissolving within ten minutes. With the town's telephone lines and bridge wiped out by a storm, the citizens of Sleepy Rock are left helpless...

The Carrier starts like an allegory for the AIDs pandemic, with the town's priest claiming that the disease is a test for sinners and asking why God has inflicted it upon them. The locals cover themselves up with plastic and sheets to stay protected. After a couple who have sex are dissolved (when the woman touches a contaminated tree),a local comments, "It's screwing that killed them". However, the film takes a seriously weird turn midway, developing into a one-of-a-kind oddity that has to be seen to be believed.

As the townsfolk start to realise what is happening, they begin to mark contaminated objects with red paint or red material. Meanwhile, the search is on for 'the carrier', the one who is spreading the disease, and prejudice and hatred bubbles to the surface. Eventually, the people split into two groups, battling over the town's supply of cats, which they use to test for the virus. Realising that he is in danger from both sides, Jake instigates a battle between the two factions, the people using 'red objects' as weapons (leading to the great one-liner "Say your prayers!" as a bloke shoves an infected bible into his victim's face).

The town's doctor (Steve Dixon) manages to quell the violence by revealing that he knows the identity of the carrier, telling the townsfolk that it was one of the people killed in the fight; however, Jake is revealed to be real carrier when a baby gets a little too close to the young man, and a chase ensues.

All of this is quite hilarious, with several unforgettable scenes, some highly quotable dialogue, and a few things that'll leave you scratching your head in confusion: drunken townsfolk hurling cats against a contaminated sign is definitely a movie first (the twitching moggies glued to the wall by their melting flesh); "You, you and you... get the cats!", "Cats or death?", and "Touch the wall, Jake" will become part of your everyday lexicon; and can anyone explain what the hell is hidden in the mine on Jake's property?

Loaded with content that could be symbolism (the black creature, the cats, Jake's inverted Christ death pose),but which might just as easily be nothing of the sort, this is one hell of a bonkers film and recommended viewing for fans of midnight movies.

If The Abomination is a Shot On Video (SOV) exploration of disease and religion, madness and murder straight out of Texas, this is its oddball rural Michigan brother that has much higher production values.

This is a movie where if I describe it to you, you'll say, "There's no way that that is a movie and no way that that much weird can be sustained across an entire movie."

But you'd be wrong.

Jake's parents died in a fire that some in town blame him for. He just wants to come to the bar, get drunk and be left alone, but someone has to call him out as a killer. And maybe someone in the bar actually did the killing and not him. But no matter what, Jake really does encounter some black creature in the woods, the kind that people whisper about in that weird bar that Jake should have avoided. But then, even though Jake survives the attack, he's left with a scar and a disease that makes him - unknown to all in town - the carrier of a strange plague which spreads to every inanimate object that he touches. When anyone touches what Jake has touched, they are dissolved into that object.

Not long into this movie and everyone in town is covered in garbage bags and post-apocalyptic gear and breaking into religious madness and herding cats to use to test anything that has been claimed by the carrier's horrible touch.

1950's Sleepy Rock, Oregon may as well be your town during COVID-19, a disease that no one was sure where it came from and how they could get it and all turning against one another. Of course, this movie was about AIDS way back in 1988, but its theme is even more in your face true today than way back when.

Director and writer Nathan J. White honestly should have made more movies than this one and done effort. He was aided by Peter Deming, who was the director of photography on Evil Dead II, Lost Highway and the Twin Peaks 2017 series.

Every time I thought, "This is getting way too silly," the movie would redeem itself or get even weirder and sillier, which I appreciate to no end. This is why regional films are so important: there were no studio notes or people saying, "None of this makes any sense." Therefore, it all makes perfect sense.