Clive Barker's The Plague starts off with your average first day of school morning. Except for some reason, every kid under the age of nine isn't waking up. Then for the next 10 years, every child worldwide is in a coma unlike the world has ever seen. And to make matters worse, all newborns come out in the same state. Twice a day, the comatose go into violent spasms simultaneously, keeping their muscles in peak physical condition. And just as the youngest awake people of the world leave to start college or work, and the last high schools close down, something stirs the sick back awake.

Now the horde of crazed teenagers are out to kill everyone in the world. Why? I'm not really sure, but these zombie-like kids also seem to have developed a weird telepathic link. The movie follows Tom Russel (James Van Der Beek of Dawson's Creek), Sam Raynor (Brad Hunt), his sister Jean Raynor (Ivana Milicevic of Just Like Heaven) and Nora (Dee Wallace-Stone of E.T.) as they try to escape a small town overrun by the infected people.

As far as horror movies go, this one was so-so. I never found myself outright scared and there were plenty of times when the movie just felt a little too formulaic. Basically, The Plague could have been pretty much any zombie horror movie because there weren't any real elements that made it stand out. Sure, the fact that it was kids that have been in comas for a decade added a little something different in the mix, but once you get past the initial setup and the "monsters" go on the loose -- there isn't a lot that stands out.

One thing that is worth a note are the striking similarities, on a really high level mind you, to Stephen King's latest book, Cell where a pulse sent through cell phones causes most of the world to go mad. There were several points in the movie that I was very much reminded of the book and it really felt like someone heard about King's book early in its development and took the idea in a different direction.

Unfortunately, once The Plague is over, you are left a little in the air. Sure the story involving the main characters is resolved, but you are left with no explanation (not even a few wild theories) as to why these kids slept for 10 years and woke up wanting to kill everything in sight. At least if there was an explanation, it was completely lost on both me and the people I watched the movie with.