Quarantine In The Film Industry
While all of us are now in quarantine, this scenario has long been lost in the cinema. Let's plunge into the 10 most fascinating films about different epidemics to my mind.
1. The curse (1987)
The picture takes place in a small town, in the area of which a strange meteorite infects the surrounding water from the sky - from this moment everything around begins to slowly but inevitably rot. What is atypical for such films, the narrative is on behalf of a teenager, helplessly watching how decomposition captures his family.
2. Slither (2006)
The story begins with a certain celestial body falling in a forest near a small town, infecting one of the inhabitants. Now he is slowly turning into a vile monster, and along the way he is trying to turn his countrymen into his own kind, spreading his “larvae” around the town. Obviously, the Slug’s legs grow out of the classic “Body-Stealing Invasion,” but Gann turned the iconic story into a rollicking black comedy in which you don’t know whether to be afraid or laugh. At the box office, the film, however, failed, and the director was slightly kicked for possible plagiarism from the cult horror Night of Nightmares (1986), where people were also infected by "space leeches."
3. Kansen (2004)
Surrealistic Japanese horror set in a hospital. A seriously ill patient enters the night shift at the front desk. The negligence of doctors leads to tragic consequences, and the staff decides to "tweak" the medical report so as to avoid liability. However, this is only the beginning - strange symptoms begin to appear in the hospital staff. Unlike most epidemic films, Kansen is a movie that should not be taken “in the face”, a rapidly and inevitably spreading disease here is more a symbol of the decomposition of human souls. The ambiguous ending will make someone scratch his head in annoyance, while someone will be stuck in his memory for a long time, forcing him to return to the picture again and again.
4. Blindness (2008)
The epidemic in the picture begins with the sudden blindness of a young Japanese - a medical examination does not reveal anything extraordinary, but the fact remains. Soon new blind people appear, whom the government decides to isolate in a local asylum. Julianne Moore plays the wife of a blind ophthalmologist (Mark Ruffalo), who also pretends to be blind, so as not to part with her husband. As the disease outside takes on the character of an epidemic and there are more and more blind people, the “isolator” plunges into chaos and anarchy. Many critics did not like the picture, and Blindness didn’t become a box office hit, but the director (Saramago), they say, was so happy after watching that he even burst into tears.
5. Carriers (2009)
A terrible virus that broke free quickly thinned humanity to such an extent that only a few survived. The main characters of the film were far from the foci of infection when it all started, and since then they moved all the time, which helped them avoid infection. But what to do when the world around is destroyed? What to hope for? Where to run? Nevertheless, the characters cling to life, not noticing how they gradually lose what makes them people. “Carriers” is a leisurely movie, in a sense meditative, but nonetheless striking.
6. Perfect sense (2011)
If we would give out awards for the most unusual epidemics in the cinema, “Perfect sense” would seriously take first place - an allegorical apocalyptic melodrama about how people began to lose their feelings in turn. Smell, taste, hearing, vision, touch ... Step by step, humanity is approaching what turns into helpless newborn babies, but those who are connected by true love will cling to each other to the last.
7. Contagion (2011)
It is an ambitious international production uniting a dozen stars and covering almost the entire globe. An American wife named Mitch returns from Hong Kong with signs of illness. At first glance, it seems that this is a common flu, but it soon becomes obvious that it is something more serious - a woman dies, her son dies, and this gives rise to the largest epidemic of the 21st century. There are several central characters and key storylines in the picture, and some of them turned out weaker than others, but at the same time there are extremely interesting images in Infection, and the script tries to build the most plausible and realistic chronicle of the spread of the deadly virus in the modern world and, of course fighting it.
8. Cabin fever (2002)
The film tells about a group of teenagers who came to a forest house for a vacation, not knowing that a terrible virus is spreading in the district, quickly turning its carriers into decaying corpses. The first symptoms of infection go unnoticed, but soon the guys realize that they have plunged in earnest - and from that moment their friendship gives a serious leak. “Fever” successfully combines suspense, bloody naturalism and highly social commentary, which made it a cult hit.
9. Shivers ( 1975)
As in the previously mentioned “Slither”, the epidemic is carried by small disgusting leeches that spread through the water supply system of a large residential complex. Having penetrated the human body, they change their "carrier", making his sexual desire uncontrollable. In all this, it is not difficult to see a social commentary on the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and a general decline in morals, but the “Shivers” also work as a completely straightforward horror. Keeping an eye on the inevitably spreading epidemic throughout the complex is extremely exciting, and the final scene, in which the protagonist is driven into a pool, where dozens of infected residents are already splashing around, crashes into memory for a long time.
10. Outbreak (1995)
The film tells about a group of epidemiologists who are trying to stop the most dangerous virus, transmitted by airborne droplets and arrived in the United States with an infected capuchin monkey. Besides the fact that "Outbreak " is a dynamic and incredibly exciting thriller, in which the saying that every minute counts takes on literal meaning. As well as a powerful and convincing warning that our planet still remains a dangerous and unpredictable place, and one little monkey can put humanity with all its scientific achievements to the brink of extinction.
Dear students, please stay at home, wash you hands and take care!
Text by
Julia Morozova