Carriers (15)

Apparently Carriers was completed, then shelved, two years ago, and it's only being dusted off now because its star, Chris Pine, has since made his name as the new Captain Kirk. It's unfortunate timing. An indie thriller written and directed by a pair of Spanish brothers, Carriers has an amazing amount in common with both Zombieland and The Road, and so, by coming out such a short time after the former, and such a short time before the latter, it's likely to be dismissed as just another post-apocalyptic road movie.

As in Zombieland, two young men (Pine and and Lou Taylor Pucci) and two young women (Piper Perabo and Emily VanCamp) are driving to the coast across a contemporary America devastated by a recent epidemic. As in The Road, the most immediate danger facing them comes from other survivors competing for dwindling supplies of fuel and food.

With its sunny locations, its small-scale story, and its toned and tanned actors, Carriers feels more like the first episode of an HBO series, but it has some heart-stopping set pieces, and it addresses the characters' kill-or-be-killed circumstances with intelligence. There's wit, too, sprinkled among the doom and gloom. "I think we should see other people," deadpans Perabo to her boyfriend, knowing that their options in that department are severely limited.

Carriers, Alex & David Pastor, 85 mins, 15