Alien Cargo (1999)
Paranoia-Inducing Alien Virus
Alien crossbred with The Crazies. Jason London and Missy Crider are crewmembers on a spaceship affected by an alien contaminant that makes them turn homicidal
Mass Insanity
Mass Insanity refers to outbreaks of madness affecting persons on a large scale. This is usually caused by some kind of agency such as a toxic waste spill or biowarfare agents, to less common means like plant spores, an alien virus, a broadcast signal, designer drugs and other means.
The progenitor of these films was George Romero’s The Crazies (1973) and a number of other films have borrowed from this and featured towns and populations undergoing outbreaks of mass insanity.
Alien Outbreak (2020)
Alien Invasion/Mass Insanity Outbreak
Fine little film about an invasion of dog-like alien robots and an outbreak of mass insanity that drives people to kill themselves, this does great things on next to nothing
Bird Box (2018)
Mysterious Catastrophe After Which People Are Forced to Not Look Outside
Very similar to A Quiet Place from several months earlier where here people cannot look outdoors and must remain blindfolded. Hindered by a frustrating lack of any explanations as to what is happening
Bird Box: Barcelona (2023)
Mysterious Catastrophe After Which People Are Forced to Not Look Outside
Bird Box was a hit on Netflix and this is a sequel. The talented Pastor Brothers take the basics of the original and actually make a much better film out of them filled with fine tension
Black Mountain Side (2014)
Deadly Infection Unearthed at an Archaeological Dig
Another copy of The Thing where a team of archaeologists in the frozen north unearth an object being 20,000 years old from a barrow that proceed to affect the team and cause mass insanity
Black Noise (2023)
Mysterious Happenings on an Island
A team of mercenaries arrive on an island on a retrieval mission only to find everybody has been turned to dust and a mysterious piercing noise that causes them to hallucinate
Cell (2016)
Stephen King Adaptation/Cellphone Zombies
Adaptation of the Stephen King novel about zombies created by a cellphone signal. Critically panned but this kicks in with a sensational opening scene and overspills with more fascinating ideas than it has room to deal with
The Collapsed (2011)
The Aftermath of a Mysterious Catastrophe
A family try to make it through the woods in the aftermath of a mysterious catastrophe while hunted by something unseen. Sort of a zombie apocalypse film without any zombies where the terrors are psychological
The Crazies (1973)
Madness Inducing Biospill
George Romero’s most underrated film, filled with disturbing images as the population of a town are driven crazy by a bio-weapon spill The first and also the best of a number films on the theme of outbreaks of mass insanity
The Crazies (2010)
Madness Inducing Biospill
George Romero’s underrated classic gets a makeover amid the 00/10s fad for remakes of 70s/80s horror films. Alas, Romero’s modest classic about a madness-inducing biospill has a big-budget thrown to emerge as just another zombie film
Dead Air (2009)
Zombie Outbreak
Madness/zombie outbreak film set in a radio station as a talkback host watches the catastrophe unfurl outside. This only cheaply goes where the far superior Pontypool did first
The Demented (2013)
Zombie Outbreak
Another in the vast horde of zombie films of the 2010s concerning a group of friends gathered for a party as a terrorist biowarfare attack turns the locals into zombies
Earthrise (2014)
Hallucinations Aboard a Space Expedition
Low-budget SF film about a space expedition from Mars to Earth where before you can say Solaris the crew start to experience hallucinations of their loved ones. Sort of The Crazies in space
The Elderly (2022)
Elderly Act Disturbed
Quite creepy Spanish film where the elderly everywhere without any explanation begin to act disturbed and turn on the young
Impulse (1984)
Mass Insanity Inducing Biospill
Reminiscent of George Romero’s The Crazies, this is a subtle, low key film about a small town as it is affected by a toxic waste leak that causes mass insanity
Infini (2015)
Mass-Insanity Inducing Alien Substance
An Australian effort that is less the usual people being hunted by alien nasties in darkened corridors standard than ‘The Crazies in Space’. Crippled by a fatal lack of tension and suspense
The Last Winter (2006)
Environmental Horror Film
A strong and effective environmental horror film from Larry Fessenden in which the crew of an Alaskan drilling operation disturb something beneath the frozen ground
Mayhem (2017)
Mass Insanity Outbreak in an Offce Building
A cross between The Belko Experiment with its murderous elimination game in an office and George Romero’s The Crazies as workers in an office is infected by a virus that causes them to lose their inhibitions. Made with dark relish
Mom & Dad (2017)
Mass Insanity Where Parents Try to Kill Their Children
A captivating variant on the mass insanity film where parents are frenziedly driven to kill their children. As the murderous father, Nicolas Cage gives a performance where he lets all stops go, while director Brian Taylor, formerly one half of Neveldine/Taylor, makes a rather watchable film
The Naked Gun (2025)
Hard-Boiled Detective Parody
A revival of the Leslie Nielsen starring Naked Gun films, which were a parody of the hard-boiled detective film. With Liam Neeson playing Nielsen’s son. Featuring a surprising degree of SF content
Nine Miles Down (2009)
Possible Borehole Opened to Hell by a Mining Operation
Promising film about two people at a mine in the desert affected by what would appear to be the drill having dug all the way down to Hell. The film plays a corny idea seriously and sits in an interestingly ambiguous place about what is going on.
Old People (2022)
Aged Attack the Young
German film in which the elderly abruptly turn and begin attacking the young en masse
Patient Zero (2012)
Madness-Inducing Virus Released at a Laboratory
This comes with a good premise – people must escape from a biological containment facility after the release of a virus that turns the infected homicidal. Essentially a low-budget version of The Crazies, this is a film that would have been improved by a studio budget
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
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
Robot Wars (2016)
Found Footage Cyberpunk Film
The title is a massive cheat as there is only a single robot that turns up in a single fight scene. The film has the distinction of being the world’s first Found Footage Cyberpunk film about a mystery box that creates mass insanity when opened
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 Signal (2007)
Mass Insanity
Excellent variant on The Crazies as a mysterious signal causes an outbreak of mass insanity. Told in terms of three intersecting stories each of which is made by a different director
The Soul Eater (2024)
Police Procedural/Folk Boogeyman Killings
A French police procedural where detectives are plunged into a series of bizarre murders involving a child sacrifice cult and a folk boogeyman. From the directorial duo who started the whole French Extremism movement with Inside
Summer Camp (2015)
Madness-Inducing Infection
Not a title that automatically suggests a horror film – and even if it does, you automatically think of the locale for a 1980s slasher film. What we get is a Spanish-made effort about a madness-inducing infection – a modestly and tightly contained effort that twists around on itself with considerable vigour
Teleios (2017)
Space Rescue Mission
An expedition is sent to Titan to investigate a ship that has failed to return and what has happened to its missing crew
13/13/13 (2013)
Mass Insanity Outbreak
The Asylum made 11/11/11 and 12/12/12 and released them on said dates. Despite running out of exploitable months in the year, they then released a third film here
Urge (2016)
Designer Drug Causes Mass Insanity
The use of a designer drug causes a small island to descend into mass insanity – this is essentially The Crazies repackaged as a slick empty-headed thriller for teen audiences. The various scenes of madness are frequently laughable and the film arrives at possibly the most ridiculous twist ending one has ever seen
YellowBrickRoad (2010)
Mysterious Trail Through the Woods/Mass Insanity
Not much to do with The Wizard of Oz – more like The Crazies by way of The Blair Witch Project, this creates a genuinely unsettling otherworldly mystery before entering into decidedly disturbed headspace