With the pollen-infused, mask-wearing allergy season in full swing, our thoughts will no doubt at some point turn to viral outbreak — or so the Japanese distributors of "Carriers" (released in Japan as "Phase 6") are likely hoping. This little-seen, under-appreciated horror film that opened in the United states last year before fading into oblivion, has more substance and a lot more sartorial flare than you'd expect from what initially seems to be just another virus horror tale.

Director-writers Alex and David Pastor have refrained from hosing the screen with blood, innards and guts of zombies; instead they have gone for a stylish, sun-scorched and windswept look. And with much of the action taking place on a straight, open road under a blazing blue sky, and performed by a leggy cast in expensive casual ensembles, you'd almost mistake the movie for a fashion documentary: A death-themed runway infected with a seriously bad virus.

"Carriers" takes off confidently from the launch pad of "28 Days Later" (Danny Boyle's film of a global outbreak of a deadly virus that almost wipes out humanity) only to land mid-journey in the muddled marshland of "Blindness" Fernando Meirelles' exploration into courage and morality after an entire city's population is struck by blindness). From then on, it doesn't seem to know quite where its going, and the combination of a deadly pandemic and the collapse of human morality sits rather heavily on the frail shoulders of the film's young leading cast.