Patient Zero (2018)
Rabid Zombies/Man Who Can Speak Their Language
Former Doctor Who Matt Smith is absurdly miscast as someone who can speak the language of zombies. The film does nothing to make the premise believable.
Plague and Pandemic
This concerns films that feature outbreaks of plague and disease. These falls into roughly three groupings:-
– Films About Pandemic and Outbreak – about the release of viral contaminants and the socially catastrophic conditions that result
– Films About Biowarfare Agents – thrillers concerned with the threat of stolen agents and about their recapture
– Films Set in Plague Devastated Futures – worlds where civilisation has been devastated or reduced to ruins in the aftermath of an outbreak
For more detail and an overview of the genre see the Theme Essay Films About Plague and Pandemic
The Patriot (1998)
Action Film/Biowarfare Outbreak
Steven Seagal action film in which he plays a former virologist fighting a militia group threatening to unleash a deadly virus
Perfect Sense (2011)
World Where People Start Losing Their Sensory Perceptions
Remarkable film set in a world where people start to progressively lose each of their senses. Much of the film works as a character drama rather than a catastrophe film but its portrait of how the world tries to cope in the aftermath of the loss of another sense makes for top-notch science-fiction
Plague (1978)
Plague Outbreak
Canadian-made thriller about the accidental release of a deadly plague from a laboratory. This is rather dull and never does anything that does not retread cliches
The Plague (1992)
Plague Outbreak/Albert Camus Adaptation
An incredibly dull version of Albert Camus’s novel about a city infected by plague. Camus wrote the original as an allegory for the Nazi occupation of France but this talks itself to death
Pontypool (2008)
Zombie Film/Deadly Contagion in the English Language
Bruce McDonald makes a standout fim with Stephen McHattie as a radio dj dealing with a zombie infection that inhabits the English language that breaks out in the town around him
Possessed (1999)
Plague/Possession by the Devil
Early film from Danish director Anders Rønnow-Klarlund. This starts out as a plague outbreak drama and then does a bizarre mid-film twist to become a possession film
Quarantine (2008)
Zombie Found Footage Film
English-language remake of the Spanish Found Footage film [Rec]. A lesser work but in the hands of John Erick Dowdle one of the few English-language horror remakes that stands up to the original
Quarantine LA (2013)
Zombie Film
Zombie film with a party of survivors trying to make it through a zombie-infested L.A. to safety
Rabid (1977)
Parasitic Skin Graft
The fourth film from David Cronenberg, a clear (although by no means uninteresting) attempt to repeat the success of Shivers with Marilyn Chambers as a woman with a vampiric skin parasite that turns victims into maddened killers
Rabid (2019)
Parasitic Skin Graft
The Soska Sisters take on remaking the classic David Cronenberg film about a woman with a blood-drinking skin graft who leaves a trail of rabid victims. The sisters smartly update the original, bringing a host of new ideas to bear
[Rec] (2007)
![[Rec] (2007) poster](https://moriareviews.com/rongulator/wp-content/uploads/rec-2007-poster-3.jpg)
Zombie Film/Found Footage
Furious and highly engaging Spanish Found Footage film about the infected dead taking over an apartment building. Three sequels and an English-language remake followed
[Rec] 2 (2009)
![[Rec] 2 (2009) poster](https://moriareviews.com/rongulator/wp-content/uploads/rec-2-2009-poster.jpg)
Zombie Film/Found Footage
Lesser sequel to the Spanish Found Footage zombie film [Rec] that repeats the original to variable effect but needlessly breaks up the single camera point-of-view
[Rec]3: Genesis (2012)
![[Rec]3 Genesis (2012) poster](https://moriareviews.com/rongulator/wp-content/uploads/rec-3-genesis-2012-poster.jpg)
Zombie Outbreak at a Wedding
Third entry in the Spanish Found Footage series. The Found Footage look is abandoned soon in but this decides to have fun and turns out the gore-drenched goods
[Rec]4: Apocalypse (2014)
![[Rec]4 Apocalypse (2014) poster](https://moriareviews.com/rongulator/wp-content/uploads/rec-4-apocalypse-2014-poster.jpg)
Zombie Outbreak on a Ship
The fourth film in the [Rec] series. This abandons the Found Footage look but without it, all we have is just another zombie film, nevertheless this builds to an intensively gore-drenched climax
Red Sonja, Queen of Plagues (2016)
Warrior Woman/Sword and Sorcery
Surprisingly good animated revival of Robert E. Howard’s warrior woman with a script by comic-book writer Gail Simone that gets the character just right
Resident Evil (2002)
Videogame Adaptation/Lab Complex of Zombies
Based on the survival horror videogame, this was the first in a surprisingly popular series of films. It also presaged a major return of the zombie film during the 2000s/10s, even if this only treads where George Romero went better before
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
Videogame Adaptation/Post-Holocaust Zombies
Four films in and clear evidence that the Resident Evil series needs to be retired. This consists of tediously borrowed action moves now presented in 3D and a plot of random dead ends that make little sense
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
Videogame Adaptation/City of Zombies
The first of the Resident Evil sequels and a better film than its predecessor, getting in a series of spectacular, if at times ridiculously silly, action sequences
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
Videogame Adaptation/Post-Holocaust Zombies
Third of the Resident Evil films. This expands the scale of action to show the entire world destroyed by the virus but for all that and a decent budget, director Russell Mulcahy fails to push the elements to a suitable head of steam
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
Videogame Adaptation/Complex of Zombies and Mutants
Another unnecessary entry in a creativity-handicapped series, the continuing popularity of which is baffles. This shuffles through the familiar moves, brings back several familiar characters but only leaves me asking why I have invested some nine hours of time following this series
Rich Flu (2024)
Plague That Kills Rich People
This comes with a wonderfully satiric idea of a plague that kills the world’s wealthiest people
Riot Girls (2019)
Girlfriends in the Aftermath of a Plague That Has Killed All Adults
A plague has killed off all adults. In the ruins, two girlfriends venture into the domain ruled by the tyrannical football jocks to rescue one’s brother
Salvage (2009)
Mass Insanity Outbreak
A modestly effective British variation on the mass insanity outbreak film. The film has one of the best out of the blue openings of any film one has seen in some time and is good at finding a kitchen sink realism, less so when it comes to explanations for what is happening
The Scorch Trials (2015)
Young Adult/Post-Holocaust Adventure
The Maze Runner was one of the better Young Adult films, creating an intriguing conceptual mystery; this sequel ignores all of that, even throws the book out and is essentially a jumble of random sf tropes that amount to no more than running, shooting and things exploding
Season of the Witch (2011)
Mediaeval Action Fantasy/Escorting a Witch
Medieavel fantasy action film with Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman assigned to escort a witch who may be able to deliver the land from the Black Plague. The wider moral issues of the film are buried under action and CGI
The Sector (2016)
Alternate World Criminal
Variant on the alternate world hopping theme where a bounty hunter finds the person he is pursuing is an alternate world criminal. The film’s budget is way too low to do any justice to either the theme or the setting after the collapse of civilisation
Songbird (2020)
Plague-Ridden Future
Film shot during the pandemic lockdown from Michael Bay’s production company set in a future where Covid has become even more virulent
Spacemaster X-7 (1958)
Alien Virus
Cheap 1950s SF film about alien spores brought back from Mars and the hunt for a housewife who inadvertently spreads them
The Stand (1994)
Showdown Between the Forces of Good and Evil After the Collapse of Civilisation/Stephen King Adaptation
The Stand is regarded as Stephen King’s best novel, an epic that depicts the final showdown between good and evil in the aftermath of civilisation. The mini-series adaptation was alas placed into the ham fists of one of King’s worst adapters. Mick Garris
The Stand (2020-2021)
Showdown Between the Forces of Good and Evil After the Collapse of Civilisation/Stephen King Adaptation
The Stand is in my opinion Stephen King’s greatest book. The question is whether this new mini-series version will improve on the laughably failed 1994 version
Station Eleven (2021-2022)
Post-Apocalyptic World
A beautifully-made post-apocalyptic story told as a mandala of threads and surprise connections that stretch over twenty years
Supergrid (2018)
Socially Collapsed Future Action
Lowell Dean, director of WolfCop, makes what feels like a revival of the low-budget Mad Max film – an action film set in a socially collapsed future
Thirst (1998)
Plague Outbreak
Rather dull plague outbreak drama tv movie based around a deadly outbreak at a water filtration plant
The Time Travelers (1976)
Time Travel
Unsold tv pilot that was a collaboration between Irwin Allen and Rod Serling where time travelers visit the Great Fire of Chicago
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Time Paradox
Terry Gilliam remakes the classic short film La Jetee as one of the most impressive of modern time travel films with an exceptional plot that is built around a sophisticated time paradox
28 Days Later (2002)
The Downfall of Civilisation/Infected Zombies
Danny Boyle’s sleeper hit presaged a big return for the zombie film during the 2000s/2010s. Not a bad film even if Boyle is conducting major borrowings from other works like The Day of the Triffids and Day of the Dead
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Post-Holocaust/Zombie Outbreak
I was cautious about hailing 28 Days Later as a modern classic; this sequel is in fact a much better film. Newcomer director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo draws it out into a series of superbly sustained suspense sequences
28 Years Later … (2025)
Post-Holocaust/The Zombie Apocalypse
28 Days Later was the work that started the modern zombie film revival. Twenty-three years later, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland return to make a third film and still wring some creativity out of the set-up
Vampire Circus (1972)
Circus of Vampires/Hammer Film
Fascinating vampire film from the latter days of Hammer Films, this tries to do something different to the usual
Venomous (2001)
Deadly Snakes/Plague Outbreak
Low-budget director Fred Olen Ray makes a head-scratching crosshatch between a plague outbreak film and an Animals Amok film with a town being attacked by snakes infected with a deadly virus
Viral (2016)
Plague Outbreak/Zombie Parasites
Effort from the near-ubiquitous Blumhouse that is constantly confounding expectations – a plague outbreak drama but not quite, a zombie film but not quite. In the end, not a great or groundbreaking film but certainly a modest one that takes things in some interesting and original directions
Wait, Wait, Don’t Kill Me (2020)
Zombie Outbreak
Film about a virus that causes people to become dehydrated and turn into zombies
War of the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Planet of the Apes Sequel
The third film in the rebooted Planet of the Apes series. The motion capture effects are at an absolute peak of the art and the motion capture performances astonishing. The whole film almost seems to consist of heart-tugging moments to make you go “aww”
What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968)
Happiness Virus Comedy
Mary Tyler Moore stars as a beatnik in a bizarre comedy where people are infected with a virus that makes them happy
World War Z (2013)
Zombie Apocalypse
You wonder what this can do with such an overworked genre as the zombie apocalypse. It is not a film that reinvents the wheel for the genre but spins the basics out into an exciting, international locale hopping survival story
WW 3 (2001)
Biowarfare Outbreak Thriller
A routine biowarfare outbreak thriller that holds a fascination in that it imagines the attacker to be al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden two months before 9/11
The X Files (1998)
The X Files Film Spinoff/Alien Invasion Conspiracy
Film spinoff from tv’s hit ultra-paranoid alien conspiracy drama. The film is caught in the unenviable position of trying to give fans what they want and reiterate the basics of the series for new audiences, while giving away no plot details in advance, and as a result ended up pleasing nobody
Zombie Killers Elephants Graveyard (2015)
Zombie Film
Another entry among the zombie revival fad of the 2000s/10s, this should be commended for taking an epic and ambitious scope in its story, enough it feels to fuel multiple seasons of The Walking Dead