Special Assignment – The Plague: The Writers and Director’s Cut

Suddenly all the children in the world fall into a catatonic state. 10 years later they awaken and begin killing all the adults in a small town.

Directed by – Hal Masonberg

Written by – Hal Masonberg, Teal Minton

Starring – James Van Der Beek, Ivana Milicevic, Brad Hunt, Joshua Close, John P. Connolly, Dee Wallace, Brittany Scobie, Bradley Sawatzky, Jon Ted Wynne, Arne MacPherson, Gene Pyrz, Genevieve Pelletier, Chad Panting, David Stuart Evans, Jan Skene

This one has taken me way, way too long to get to. Quite a time ago I reviewed this movie and received a comment from the director, Hal Masonberg, pointing me to this website – Spreading the Plague. He had been working on getting a new version of the film released. The studio, as I’m sure the often do, had recut and released the film and it was much different from the director’s original vision. Hal had been trying to spread the word about the movie and how he was attempting to get a writers and director’s cut released. I contacted him and expressed my interest in helping to spread the word and he gratefully sent me a copy of his cut of the film.

Honestly, the first version that I saw wasn’t that bad really. I just felt that it had some unexplored ideas that I would have liked to have seen more of. Now with this version I didn’t really notice too many changes but the ones that I did catch do make the movie much more fulfilling than the studio version. There’s more to the characters and I actually found a better understanding for some of them. It also made me more sympathetic towards them as well. It’s not a masterpiece but it’s still a really good movie.

The ideas that are peppered throughout the film are really intriguing and I still would like to see them explored more. This global crisis of every child falling into a coma and the fact that any child born within the last 10 years suffering the same fate is a very cool idea. This version has some subtle references to the effect that it’s had on the global economy which I don’t believe were in the first version. Either way, I give these guys credit for taking what was a good horror film and injecting some character development, thereby making it not only a good horror flick, but adding a level of suspense that wasn’t there before.

Now, I also agreed to give my two cents on the entire DVD, as it’s a 2 disc version, and the entire package itself. The packaging looks great and the DVD’s themselves, while obviously made at a lower budget, look well done and would only look better if made more professionally. What really blew me away was the amount of extras here. While we’re typically treated to overblown interviews with stars and some made-for-tv documentaries on the making of, this DVD had some impressive behind the scenes looks at the film. For a film buff like me who really takes an interest in how a movie is made it was amazing. There’s some really in depth stuff here with storyboard to film comparisons, a director’s diary, and a documentary (which is also available for viewing at the above mentioned site) giving more insight into how and why everyone would like to see this cut brought out for the audience.

The one thing I didn’t get to was the commentary. I started to listen but then wanted to just watch the movie to better get the differences in the two versions. I’m glad I did as what is missing from the studio cut is alot of character development. I can only imagine that the commentary is equally as entertaining and informative as all the other features on the disc. It’s a shame that both versions weren’t released together since that’s usually the case nowadays. It goes to show how just a few minor changes can affect a movie so drastically.

You can find my original review here. And I still recommend checking out the Spreading the Plague website and signing the petition to help get this movie released. I don’t know how many of you guys enjoy movies the way I do but this type of stuff has always been interesting to me and it’s a great way to show support for a filmmaker.

Under the marquee – Will