Plaguers is the sort of B horror movie that knows the rules of its genre. So it does not try to exceed them, instead, it more or less masters the B horror movie. If there was an essential checklist for B movie musts, in my opinion, Plaguers hits all the marks. Let’s see. Unnecessary callbacks to other well-known horror movies. Check. Bad girls wearing skimpy outfits. Check. Girl on girl fight scenes. Check. Make out scenes. Check. Cheese dripping one-liner after one liner. Check. Bad effects. Check. Check. Check.

Here’s the synopsis – When an alien contagion is released aboard a spaceship transforming its victims into demonic flesh-eaters, the crew must either destroy the infected or join them. Plaguers is written and directed by Brad Sykes. Initially, Plaguers was released in 2008.

The setting is outer space and the story plays out on two spacecraft. One craft, the Pandora houses the crew and serves as majority of the film’s location. It’s when the crew investigates an SOS abroad the USS Diana they discover the all-female survivors of some catastrophe. Many science fiction movies have painted images of the horrors that await man in space.

The resulting concepts have sometimes been truly thought-provoking. Other times it’s just a good time watching a movie. Face it, sometimes audiences get a film like Alien and other times we get 2001: A Space Odyssey. Plaguers is a good watch if you are someone that enjoys snacking while watching something that feels like an attempt to mix a Dr. Who episode with 28 Days Later and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Watched in that context, you can really appreciate this B movie gem.

Plaguers starts off with a startling chase sequence before flashing back several hours in time. It’s at this point we are introduced to some of the cast of the Pandora including Captain Darian Holloway (Alexis Zibolis), ship pilot Briggs (Chad Nell), and shipmate Riley (Jared Michaels). From here we are shown the film’s big MacGuffin. Down in the storage, there is a large container the crew has taken to calling Thanatos. What exactly it does we’ll find out later when it spews some green slime all over one of the rescued female crew of the USS Diana. The resulting transformation is comically bad. She’s become some sort of mutant space zombie. Yes, this film drips cheese.

As the plot chugs ahead, we find out that the crew of the Diana went to great lengths to acquire the Thanatos. Along the way, they lost their ship’s first captain. It’s actually pretty interesting that a film that pulls no punches on showing its influences, chief among them Alien, pulling a scene right from Alien Covenant’s James Franco death of the captain scene.

Plaguers does a decent job of building dread at moments. Other times it’s too hard to take the movie seriously because of the cheesy effects. This is low budget fare and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, I have a toy replica space ship that looks better than the two ships depicted in Plaguers. I have seen horrible Star Wars films made by fans that had better effects than this. A comparison I could not jar from my head when Plaguers attempts to turn up the heat with a blow torch fight.

If you ever find yourself in couch potato mode and wanting something so bad it’s good to watch. Look no further. Track down a copy of Plaguers.

FINAL GRADE: D

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