The Plague (2006)

(23%) A disappointingly plotted, and overall average at best horror flick with that has a twilight zone type premise (only half as good) that could maybe have gone down some pretty interesting places, yet goes nowhere with a real dire, groan inducing ending that concludes very little to nothing. The characters are by and large bland, the performances are the stuff of TV movies, and you just get the feeling you've seen it all before. The plot itself is too far fetched for what is, more or less, a tame zombie flick, but it must be said that there are worse horror films out there, yet there are so many that are much better.

Some plague befalls children worldwide leaving them unconscious, unresponsive and suffering from seizures twice a day. 10 years later they wake up.Tom visits his brother after a stint in jail for killing someone in a bar fight. The brother also has an affected son. Tom runs into his ex-wife and his friend, a brother of the ex. Everybody treats Tom as if he were suffering from the black plague.The next morning Tom finds his brother in bed with his head smashed in and his nephew attacks him, but his friend shows up just in time. They go looking for the ex at a hospital and run into hordes of bloodthirsty kids ready to kill anyone who gets in their way. They also run into a strange young couple who can blend in with the kids.They find the ex and escape to a church where also other folk gather. The next day the decide to drive to a nearby air force base but the cars have been disabled by the kids- all of the cars. That leads them to conclude that the kids are learning and developing. They also witness up close what happens to a person when kids grab him- a leader kid shows up and puts his hands on the person and the person then dies. In the church they also find the writings of the priest. The group finds a car and drive away only to be stopped by two kids with guns- they've now learned to fire weapons! While Tom wants to keep walking to the base, the ex and the strange couple decide to walk back into town and get weapons. But at that point, Tom has figured out what is going on. The Plague seems to be a version of The Crazies with kids, but since the name Clive Barker is attached to this movie, the explanation won't be simple. The key is the writing of the priest, a passage from the Bible, regarding the end of times and children. It is not enough to base a movie on really, and The Plague moves at a leisurely pace, and the characters aren't all that freaked out by the bizarre events taking place. Still, it's an enjoyable movie. To some extent we've gotten used to zombies and the like and don't expect an explanation of why things happen. The Plague tries to offer it, but it's just not convincing. Of course as with all these movies some character just have to take stupid decisions that no one in his right mind would take. The ending also doesn't quite work all that well, but I guess the filmmakers are trying to get the audience to think and imagine things so they didn't clarify everything. The Plague offers an interesting idea but it could have given the audience more material.

This movie had real potential to be a good move. It is quite creepy in parts but redemption movies are not really my thing. A plague has taken all the children away just like the pied piper pinched children in fairy tales. In this one the unknown power puts them into a coma from which no ones knows if they will recover.In a well trawled plot line the kids are here to save us. Of course it does not make a whole lot of sense. What have we done? What have they done? Perhaps this is god punishing us for all the evil things we have done. Or if they had produced this movie in the 1990s it could have been a way of saying that the Christians might go to heaven.If you want to see this movie competently try watching End of the Line. Which is close to this plot but expertly handled. I kept waiting for something to happen. Then when something happened i kept waiting for it to get exciting. It never does. Calling it Clive Barker's The Plague makes you think that it might have some of CB's genius for horror. Unfortunately this did not prove the case as he is only the executive producer and has not written any part of it. So if like me you wanted the darkness of his mind you are going to be really disappointed.

The one star out of ten that I do give goes to honor the wonderful Dee Wallace and even Van der Beeck and Milicevic produced quality performances.The worst thing about this film is the writing, the directing, the production, the plot, the hidden messages, Clive Barker's weakening ability to write horror, and all the rest! A veritable suckfest to be sure. I was so disgusted by the immense waste of time after watching this film that I felt compelled to go back online and write this review! There goes 90 minutes of my life that I will never get back.Again, the only worthwhile thing in this movie were Dee Wallace and the other main characters---absolutely nothing else!