Contagion
Contrasting with the films on my contagious violence list (and, beyond them, zombie movies), sometimes people don't turn into rampaging cannibals when they get a disease, sometimes a lot of people just get sick and die, messily. This is the list for those films, because sometimes it is fun to kick back and watch a film where someone bleeds to death from their ass.
Although the outbreak can be relatively limited, these often deal with pandemics and so grade into apocalyptic movies.
This isn't a complete survey (there are always more) but it does seem like there are more of these films recently, perhaps because of the concerns over SARS and the various flus (avian and swine). Hopefully, these cathartic excursions are the closest most of us get to such modern plagues.
Although the outbreak can be relatively limited, these often deal with pandemics and so grade into apocalyptic movies.
This isn't a complete survey (there are always more) but it does seem like there are more of these films recently, perhaps because of the concerns over SARS and the various flus (avian and swine). Hopefully, these cathartic excursions are the closest most of us get to such modern plagues.
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- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsMatt DamonKate WinsletJude LawHealthcare professionals, government officials and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a pandemic as the CDC works to find a cure.Here for the thumbnail graphic, the list begins below:
- DirectorHugo HaasStarsHugo HaasBedrich KarenZdenek Stepánek"The White Sickness", a leprosy-like disease, ravages the world during a war.aka Skeleton on Horseback
- DirectorMaurice ClocheStarsPierre FresnayAimé ClariondJean DebucourtSt. Vincent de Paul struggles to bring about peace and harmony among peasants and nobles in the midst of the Black Death in Europe, carrying on his charitable work in the face of all obstacles.
- DirectorEarl McEvoyStarsEvelyn KeyesCharles KorvinWilliam BishopPolice seek a smuggler while doctors, unaware she's the same person, desperately comb unprotected New York for a smallpox carrier.aka The Killer That Stalked New York
- DirectorElia KazanStarsRichard WidmarkPaul DouglasBarbara Bel GeddesA doctor and a policeman in New Orleans have only 48 hours to locate a killer infected with pneumonic plague.
- DirectorAntony DarnboroughTerence FisherStarsJean SimmonsDirk BogardeDavid TomlinsonVicky Barton visits Paris with her brother Johnny, only to discover the following morning he has gone missing and the hotel staff have no recollection of his presence.Tricky one but I'll leave it in for now.
- DirectorVal GuestStarsClaire BloomRichard JohnsonYolande DonlanA doctor's already-shaky marriage is tested to an even greater extent when he has to contend with a smallpox epidemic.
- DirectorRoger CormanStarsVincent PriceHazel CourtJane AsherA European prince terrorizes the local peasantry while using his castle as a refuge against the "Red Death" plague that stalks the land.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsGeorge MaharisRichard BasehartAnne FrancisA germ that could destroy life on Earth is stolen from a biological warfare lab and the thief threatens to release it into the open, prompting a security officer to act.
- DirectorGeorge SeatonStarsGeorge PeppardMary Tyler MooreDon StroudA new infection that simply makes people feel happy is treated as a threat by the authorities while its "victims" work to spread it to others.A nice virus.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsJames OlsonArthur HillDavid WayneTop scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what killed the citizens of a small town and how the deadly contagion can be stopped.
- DirectorRobert YoungStarsAdrienne CorriThorley WaltersAnthony HigginsAs the plague sweeps the countryside, a quarantined village is visited by a mysterious traveling circus. Soon, young children begin to disappear, and the locals suspect the circus troupe might be hiding a horrifying secret.
- DirectorGeorge P. CosmatosStarsSophia LorenRichard HarrisMartin SheenPassengers on a European train have been exposed to a deadly disease. Nobody will let them off the train. So what happens next?
- DirectorBill RebaneStarsRalph MeekerStafford MorganJohn F. GoffA microorganism from Mars, brought to Earth by a space probe, terrorizes passengers in a railroad office.
- DirectorEd HuntStarsDaniel PilonKate ReidCéline LomezAn ambitious lab assistant carries out a forbidden experiment and accidentally creates a deadly bacteria which kills her and rapidly engulfs the city. The authorities order a curtain of secrecy and impose quarantine on all known contacts whilst embarking on a desperate search for a cure. Meanwhile one of the people in quarantine escapes and becomes the unwitting carrier of the disease. She spreads the plague wherever she goes and becomes a fugitive on the run eluding the police through subways and alleyways. In a gripping build up of events, the full horror of the plague becomes public and the onslaught has to be stopped before all human life on Earth is destroyed.
- DirectorKinji FukasakuStarsMasao KusakariTsunehiko WataseIsao NatsuyagiAfter a virus devastates the global human population, survivors in Antarctica desperately try to find a cure and save the human race.aka Virus
- DirectorGoran MarkovicStarsRade SerbedzijaErland JosephsonDusica ZegaracThis is a true story of the famous Variola epidemic outbreak in Belgrade.
- DirectorHal BarwoodStarsSam WaterstonKathleen QuinlanYaphet KottoA woman working as a security guard in an agricultural research facility finds herself and her co-worker Schmidt fighting to survive against their former friends.
- DirectorPaul VerhoevenStarsRutger HauerJennifer Jason LeighTom BurlinsonIn medieval Europe, a young girl from a noble family is obsessed with her captors - commoners.
- DirectorLars von TrierStarsAllan De WaalOle ErnstMichael GeltingA director and screenwriter pen a script and, in the process, blur the line between fiction and reality.
- DirectorNathan J. WhiteStarsGregory FortescueStevie LeeSteve DixonThe main character is stricken with a horrible disease, but it doesn't affect him. It spreads to every inamimate object that he touches, and then if another person touches the object, they are dissolved into it. No one knows that Jake is the carrier except him. This brings about the "red objects" that specify every object that he has touched, as discovered by the community with cats. They use cats to test inanimate objects for the disease. And they cover themselves in garbage bags to protect themselves.
- DirectorCharles WilkinsonStarsBeatrice BoeppleGarwin SanfordJerry WassermanIn a futuristic society being decimated by plague, a fascist movement seizes power and quarantines not only the plague victims, but anyone related to them. Rebels trying to assassinate a particularly reactionary senator stumble onto a computer programmer trying to track and eradicate the disease.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsAlan BatesJennifer BealsJan NiklasInvestigating a series of suicides, police detective reveals a sinister plot.
- DirectorAdam SimonDarren Patrick MoloneyStarsDiane LaddRaphael SbargeJennifer RunyonA genetically manipulated and very hungry dinosaur escapes from a bioengineering company and wreaks havoc on the local desert town. A security guard and a girl environmentalist try to stop both it and the company's doomsday bioweapon.Perhaps the oddest virus - one that makes women pregnant with dinosaurs.
- StarsGary SiniseMolly RingwaldJamey SheridanAfter a deadly plague kills most of the world's population, the remaining survivors split into two groups - one led by a benevolent elder and the other by a malevolent being - to face each other in a final battle between good and evil.