Durably taut, but rather restraint little low-budget biological thriller that sees a group of scientists quarantined inside a building when a deadly chemical agent they're working on is accidentally released, causing them to become violently homicidal. Caught in the middle of it is a lady security guard, who might just hold the answer for a vaccine, as she seems unaffected.

Confidently directed, thoughtfully written (as it could be seen as a minor blue print for "Resident Evil") and exemplary performed, but "Warning Sign" seems to go by unnoticed, despite it's considerably gripping and unnerving progression. Their low-scale origin is probably what tips it in that forgotten category, because it's not excitingly barnstorming in its thrills or cast. Nonetheless it bestows moments of furious intensity and compact suspense… in what feels like a waiting game after not taking all that long to get into it. The acting led perfectly pitched by Kathleen Quinlan, Sam Waterston, Jeffrey DeMunn, Richard Dysart, G.W. Bailey and Yaphet Kotto. Craig Safan chips away with an ominously airy electronic score. Director Hal Barwood well measured style, ably operates with his actors in constructing a real fearful mood inside the building, but also making the air outside just as dangerously on-edge. When it came to its irony enclosed ending, it felt a little out of place and rather forced than what it naturally built-up.

An earnest, but well engineered sci-fi / horror outing that's more than your simple filler.

This very underrated film happens to be one of my favorite thriller/horror films of the 80's. This film is so stylish that even the blood spatter that follows is done tastefully and not gory. A virus turns biologists into zombie-like humans, but they don't want to eat your brains and you don't turn into a zombie when bitten. They do, however, want to kill the living, hence the zombie referral, although it is by no means a zombie film. The cast is incredibly good and convincing, and the make-up effects are equally good. Interesting fact about director Hall Barwood is that this was his only film project as director. After this, he ventured into video games.

Monsanto... er, I mean BioTek... er, I mean the U.S. government created a biological weapon. Much like the movie Crazies, this bio-weapon causes the infected to become homicidal maniacs. The chemical breaches its containment through a series of accidental events. The good thing is that BioTek has a very effective containment plan in the event of a breach. The bad thing is there are local yokels outside trying to break in as well as infected inside trying to kill everyone in sight.

The movie started well. I liked the professionalism of the security guard, Joanie (Kathleen Quinlan). It is somewhat odd that such a serious task would be left to a mere security guard, but she did everything right. That is until she decided it was a good idea to drag around Dr. Sicky aka Dr. Schmidt (G.W. Bailey). She had ample evidence that he was sick, that should've been enough for her to keep her distance--even if she thought she was already infected. If that wasn't enough, she also saw the violent tendencies of the other infected so why drag around a guy who's going to kill you one way or another.

As I said, the movie started off well. Joanie enacted the protocol and the U.S. military showed up to keep the germ under wraps, both literally and figuratively. Then the movie devolved from there. Joanie became less intelligent and the military completely lost control. The fact that the military lost control didn't bother me as much as the idiots who overran the military. Are people in Utah that dumb?

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not bothered that they have a distrust or a dislike for the U.S. government. I'm bothered that they think it's appropriate to unseal a building that deals in chemicals! The name is BioTek and they deal in genetic engineering. Even if your family and friends are in there you think it's wise to let whatever is in there out?

Barring the Utans, or Utahans--or whatever you call people from Utah--barring their destructive behavior I thought the movie was pretty good. A toxic agent was loose and only Cal (Sam Waterson) and Dr. Fairchild (Jeffrey DeMunn) cared enough to try to do anything about it. Once they got into the sealed facility it was a race against time as they found themselves infected. It wasn't a great movie but it could've been a lot worse.