Best in Show: Outbreak Movies (Part I of II)

Pandemics and outbreaks are something that everyone seems so interested in, yet fears so much, No matter what it is, these sicknesses glue people to their TVs as world news reports help the stories unfold. Today, we're focusing on the scariest pandemic films out there. With flu season hopefully soon behind us, these movies are each meant to instill the fear that an epidemic is more than likely coming. In an attempt to define these outbreaks, note the absence of zombie films that specifically raise people from the dead. However, the exact nature of diseases isn't perfect so this list is somewhat broad in spectrum, but all are undeniably horrific.




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10. Reaper Virus (Doomsday)

While the vast majority of this film takes place post-pandemic, the fact remains that the damage done by the virus and eventual world restructuring are both pretty terrifying. Filled with gore and Mad Max-like biker who happen to also be cannibals, Doomsday was an over-the-top action-horror film that was meant for geeks and nerds. It's the type of film that's world is entirely parallel to ours and for it to work, you need to invest yourself. At the least, the idea to have Scotland completely done over after a pandemic with two warring factions who exist in secrecy to the outside non-quarantined world is at the very least, pretty original.

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9. Plant-spread Neurotoxin (The Happening)

The Happening by no means, is a good movie. It's poorly acted, thinly written plot all culminate into something rather underwhelming. But, decidedly, the one thing that does work for this film is its terrifying fictional sickness. Spread through the air at the hands of plants, the movie's central themes of global warming are a little too blatant, but ultimately effective. It's the type of film that makes the audience feel hopeless at the hands of the illness and while the movie was a bore, the idea that plants have the ability to readjust our world to survive, is pretty fantastic.



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8. Super Rabies ([REC]/Quarantine)

The outbreak of a type of super rabies in an apartment building and the quarantine that results is the stuff of claustrophobic germaphobes' nightmares. While small in scale, the outbreaks of the original [REC] and later American-remake Quarantine struck a spine-tingling cord in the souls of audiences. Between the dark, dank apartment settings of the two films that feels much more realistic than some of the glossed-over looks of modern horror films that surround it and a pension for creating spooky atmosphere, these movies are truly terrifying entries into the outbreak subgenre.

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7. Re-engineered Measles Virus (I Am Legend)

By far one of the most well-known and identifiably crossover films on this list, the mainstream I Am Legend features a virus with a disturbingly sad backstory and a disturbingly dark forward. Originally created as a cancer cure, the virus featured in this movie kills most of those infected and leaves others as raging creatures with a sensitivity to sunlight. I Am Legend is a terrifying endeavor in human nature and intervention and between the plenty of sad moments (RIP Max and fam), this movie features plenty of scary ones.

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6. Zombie Plague (World War Z)

I really tried to avoid straight up zombies on this list. I really did, but the scientific aspects and constant referral of the virus in World War Z as a curable disease makes it worth the inclusion. World War Z came out at a time when zombies oversaturated the industry and for that it is especially commendable. It's terrifically action-packed, suspenseful and well-made. From the opening escape scenes in the red-lit apartment to the attempts to find a cure are all equally compelling and scary.