Most
people know Michigan based cult hero Bruce Campbell for his work on Sam Raimi’s
The Evil Dead series. Upon further inspection, however, it turns out
he was also the sound designer for one of the weirdest and most wholly original
Michigan based horror movies: one-time writer-director Nathan J. White’s truly
madcap The Carrier.
Previously
released straight-to-video before resurfacing on a now out-of-print Code Red
blu-ray disc featuring the original director’s cut, The Carrier mostly flew under the radar but those who managed to
see it can hardly forget how go-for-broke unhinged this crossbreed between Lord of the Flies, Dawn of the Dead and Twin
Peaks of all things was.
Sporting
a largely unknown local cast wrapped in more plastic than Sheryl Lee’s Laura
Palmer, this strange yet inspired little homegrown number concerns a bizarre
viral outbreak stemming from a bigfoot-type creature attack which leaves its
victim Jake Spear (Gregory Fortescue) infected with a deadly flesh eating virus he
himself is immune to while everyone else dissolves into nothing from the
slightest touch.
The
infection isn’t simply spread by Jake but any inanimate object he touches,
including an early sequence where a man’s arm is burned off simply by touching
a Dr. Seuss children’s book. As the small
superstitious town trapped in a Missoula, Montana-like time warp starts covering
themselves in tarps and trash bags, a split occurs dividing the town into groups
fighting over the only reliable source of identifying the virus: stray cats!
Truly
innovative in its bizarre concept and boundlessly utterly insane, The Carrier is probably the strangest
film to ever come out of Michigan whose real stars aren’t so much the non-professional
cast members as they are those behind the camera. Nathan J. White never went on to direct
anything else after this which is a shame as he devised one Hell of a surreal
oddball jaunt which is both a captivating thriller and a kind of berserk slice
of genius.
Fans
of The Evil Dead will recognize the electronic
keyboard score by Joseph LoDuca which made me think a deadite was going to jump
out at any second. Most startling of all
is Evil Dead II cinematographer Peter
Deming’s participation in the project, considering his own eventual coalition
with David Lynch on Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and of course Twin Peaks: The Return. For being so low-budget it looks
professionally shot and lit, signifying Deming’s own gradual ascent into the
pantheon of the all-time great cinematographers.
While
not the most well-acted Michigan based film out there, what it lacks in
performances it makes up for in terms of one-of-a-kind innovation and really
doesn’t resemble any other horror thriller out there. Largely overlooked after going
straight-to-video and still unavailable due to an unresolved technical defect
on the Code Red blu-ray disc, The Carrier
remains a clandestine underrated gem ripe for rediscovery by The Evil Dead fans and adventurous
cinephiles alike eager to see something outside of their comfort zones. There will never be one quite like this
again!
--Andrew Kotwicki
