The Plague (film)
The Plague | |
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Directed by | Hal Masonberg |
Produced by | Clive Barker |
Written by |
Hal Masonberg Teal Minton |
Starring |
James Van Der Beek Ivana Miličević |
Cinematography | Bill Butler |
Editing by | Ed Marx |
Studio |
Midnight Picture Show Armada Pictures |
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment |
Release dates | September 5, 2006 |
Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Plague (also known as Clive Barker's The Plague) is a 2006 horror film directed by Hal Masonberg and written by Masonberg and Teal Minton; it was also co-produced by Clive Barker.[1]
Plot
In 1983, simultaneously one day all of the world's children under the age of nine fall into a catatonic state. For the next ten years, every child who is born, is born in a state of catatonia. During this state, the children experience seizures twice a day and seem to develop superhuman strength. By 1993, all the children wake up, hellbent on killing all adults. Things get even worse when the adults realize the children have a sort of collective brain—what one learns, they all learn. The children get smarter by the hour, first they dismantle the engines in almost every car and set up road blocks to stop the adults from escaping. Then they learn how to use firearms. The children also take the souls of the ones they kill as a part of deliverance. The adults must find a way to stop them before it's too late.
Cast
- James Van Der Beek as Tom Russel
- Ivana Miličević as Jean Raynor
- Brad Hunt as Sam Raynor
- Joshua Close as Kip
- Brittany Scobie as Claire
- Bradley Sawatzky as Nathan Burgandy
- John P. Connolly as Sheriff Cal Stewart
- Dee Wallace as Nora
- John Ted Wynne as Dr. Jenkins
- Arne McPherson as David
Background
The story is somewhat similar to the 1960 British film Village of the Damned and Children of the Corn (1984 film).
The version of this film released to DVD in 2006 known as "Clive Barker's The Plague" was reedited from scratch by the film's producers without the participation of the writers, director or cinematographer, all of whom have claimed that the released version in no way represents their vision or intent.
This story was not --as some have suggested-- based on any of Clive Barker's writings. It was based on an original screenplay by Hal Masonberg and Teal Minton.
A prominent recurring image in the film is a dogeared copy of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath. The plot of the film adopts ideas and structure from Steinbeck's novel, beginning with the release of Tom Russel from prison, returning to a home immersed in intolerable misery, stumbling from disaster to disaster, and culminating in a kind of hope for redemption that may some day compensate for the horror that has gone before. This theme is more prominent in the unreleased cut of the film known at "The Plague: Writers & Director's Cut."
Distribution
The Region 1 DVD was released September 5, 2006. In addition to this release, there is also an unreleased cut of the film known as The Plague: Writer's & Director's Cut.
References
- ↑ The Plague at the Internet Movie Database
External links
- The Plague at the Internet Movie Database
- The Plague at allmovie
- The Plague Official Site
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