Anthrax (2001)

The most unusual thing about this opportunist cable TV picture is that, for once, Canada gets to play itself rather than stand in for America, though Canadian William B. Davis is cast yet again as a Yank, reprising his sinister government spook act from The X-Files. Set mostly in a rural community where a few cows have dropped dead, it revolves around a grass-roots protest against a lab where Ed Begley Jr is developing an anthrax vaccine; the Sheriff hero (Cameron Daddo) is torn in his sympathies as his farmer wife (Allison Hossack) and mother-in-law (Joanna Cassidy) blame the lab for the bovine deaths. A supposed journo (David Keith) encourages the group to have a sit-in, but his hidden agenda is to steal anthrax vials and scarper, leaving the annoying old chain-smoker (Jan Rubes) to get exposed and die, prompting a siege situation that is too swiftly defused for tension to work. There's a possible heartbreak as Daddo discovers his wife has taken their son along on the demo and the kid throws a wobbly at the worst moment, but everyone is hustled out and decontaminated promptly, which makes for a less interesting third act as it turns out (predictably) that Keith has been working for Davis to make a point about lax Canadian security methods and (even more predictably) doesn't hand over the vials since he wants to set off a bomb and extort ten million. The low budget is reflected by the way a potential catastrophe with international ramifications is handled almost solely by an RCMP Sheriff and his single sidekick (Brian Markinson). A few smart bits of characterisation don't add up to much as the story self-destructs without delivering any large-scale outbreak. Written by David Schultz; directed by Rick Stevenson.

First published in this form here.

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