Plaguers
Plaguers is a 2008 American science-fiction horror film written and directed by Brad Sykes and featuring Steve Railsback. Plot. Tarver (Steve Railsback) is a crew member on board "Pandora", a freight transport carrier headed toward Earth with a desperately needed new energy supply, a strange substance called "Thanatos". "Pandora"s captain, Darian Holoway (Alexis Zibolis) was recently promoted after the death of former captain Rubini (David P. Johnson). Some of the crew are suspicious of the Thanatos. Approaching Earth, the ship diverts to respond to a distress call from the spacecraft "Diana". The "Diana" appears abandoned until the discovery  of four nurses from the "Diana"s medical facility who claim to have survived a pirate attack. The nurses are actually the pirates and they attempt a takeover of the "Pandora". During the struggles, the Thanatos container is ruptured and fluid spills onto one of the pirates. She mutates and becomes a "plaguer". One by one, the pirates and the "Pandora" crew become infected, as the Thanatos becomes strong enough to take control of the ship and head it straight toward Earth. Background. Writer/director Brad Sykes included certain elements that were reminiscent of "Alien". His reference points in writing the  film were "Aliens", "Prince of Darkness", and "The Thing". He said he "liked how the characters didn't die, but were transformed into something alien or inhuman as the story progressed." Sykes also said that Italian film director Lamberto Bava's "Dèmoni" (also known as "Demons") influenced the actions of the plaguers themselves and that he loves "the wild energy of Italian horror films and tried to bring that into the film whenever possible." He even told his cast to watch "Dèmoni" for inspiration. Reception. "Quiet Earth" wrote that "Plaguers" is a "scifi horror film that wants to be "Alien  but comes off feeling like another in a long line of Alien" 'homages'." In its review of the film, "DVD Talk" said there "are a lot of problems with "Plaguers", though it does have some merit", offering that there were "occasional scattered moments of actual tension, and a few effective jump scares", and that "makeup effects are for the most part lots of fun..." "DVD Verdict" said, ""Plaguers" is a 'so bad it's bad' film that explores the space zombie territory with little regard for common sense or science fiction", concluding that the film "doesn't qualify for camp  or cult classic, it's just flat out terrible and would be embarrassing for even a public access channel to put on their schedule."