| Review | Warning Sign (1985) | Director | Hal Barwood |
|---|---|
| Writers | Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins |
| Cast | Sam Waterston, Kathleen Quinlan, Yaphet Kotto, Jeffrey DeMunn, G.W. Baily, Richard Dysart, Jerry Hardin and Rick Rossovich |
“Who are you trying to protect?” – Cal
A government run research facility called BioTek Agronomics deals, on the surface, with genetically engineered corn that will improve farming considerably. But what the government is really doing is sponsoring a germ-warfare program which be can activated should the Soviets launch an attack on the USA. At the end of a normal working day the biohazard alerts appear on the monitor and security guard Joanie (Quinlan) follows protocol and effectively puts BioTek on lockdown.
The US Accident Containment Team, headed by Major Connolly (Kotto) promptly arrives to take charge. Local sheriff Cal (Waterstone), who’s also Joanie’s fiancée, is on hand along with a herd of locals from town who are worried about their loved ones trapped inside. And some things are definitely going on inside! The whole research team, lead by Dr. Nielsen (Dysart), is being monitored on security cameras and appears to have perished during the chemical spill but hours later are seen moving around and looking anything but normal. Eventually Cal seeks outside help from former inside man Dr. Fairchild (DeMunn) and wants to break into the facility.
I almost feel like a part of an exclusive club who’s in on how terrific this film is. It’s received precious little fanfare from genre/horror fans and very little discussion on social media platforms. It doesn’t fall into the same category as other “disease spreading thrillers” like, say, the A-list blockbuster “Outbreak” (1995) but has it’s origins and inspirations more moulded in B-movie territory with nods to the likes of various zombie movies to “John Carpenter’s The Thing” (1982) with a dash of 70’s paranoia thrown in. Still with all these obvious influences it more than carves out an identity of it’s own and offers a really compact story that is both very suspenseful and immensely entertaining.
Part of the big quality here is the terrific screenplay penned by director Barwood and Matthew Robbins. It literally gets things moving from the start and gradually ups the tension. It’s very era-specific in dealing with remnants of the Cold War with the Soviet Union but the yarn offered up here is really intriguing and not far fetched at all. It lays the groundwork for some mysterious things taking place at BioTek and the escalating horror that ensues feels authentically built up and not thrown in for shock value. None of this would transpire all that well if wasn’t also for the very competent direction from first time feature director Barwood. Having a very good feel for pacing, Barwood moves things along at a breakneck pace while also allowing some much needed character development to rear it’s head. A few horror set-pieces are also well realised and really deliver the goods for any aficionado of the genre. It’s truly a shame that “Warning Sign” tanked at the box-office and received mostly bad reviews from critics. To this day Barwood hasn’t directed another feature film.
It also doesn’t hurt that the film was lensed by the great director of photography Dean Cundey (“Halloween” and “John Carpenter’s The Thing”) so the look of the film is splendid. It looks like it had a healthy budget too.
The cast deserves a mention as well. Waterston is really appealing as the Town Sheriff and brings his customary everyman charm to the role. Quinlan goes through the emotional ringer and really delivers a good performance. Kotto exudes authority and, as usual, is pretty forceful as the Government man who knows more than he’s letting on. Also G.W. Baily; best known as the bumbling Captain Harris in the “Police Academy” series, is really good in his role as a high ranking employee at BioTek. He’s got some dramatic chops and can certainly play things straight.
I personally think “Warning Sign” would have fared better had it been made a few years earlier. In the mid 80’s these types of B-movie thrillers weren’t as well received as the public’s mindset had gradually geared more towards action oriented and humour driven horror. While I consider “Warning Sign” to be a really terrific horror/thriller I do think the overly happy resolution is a letdown and it probably would have had more of an impact with a more 70’s downbeat denouement. But still, as is, the film deserves way more recognition.
Physical Copy
My copy of “Warning Sign” is the region A Blu-ray release issued by Scream Factory in 2019. It’s a really good disc with solid A/V quality and some really good supplements. There’s a commentary by Barwood (haven’t gone through it) and a candid and informative interview as well. Also there’s a solid interview with producer Jim Bloom along with the usual assortments of trailers and stills gallery. A really good release from Scream Factory.
Why physical copy?
I always encourage the acquisition of physical copies as I dread the day when films will only exist as files on computers and through streaming services. The companies that put the effort into making the discs, create new artwork or reproduce the originals, issue booklets and much more deserve all the financial support they can. Therefore I will always mention the Blu-rays or DVD’s (and yes; also if I review something streamed through Netflix or the like) even though I gain nothing from it personally.
