Top 10 contagious films
After filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald told the Star he had watched dozens of movies about infectious diseases before making 3 Needles, his 2005 Toronto International Film Festival entry, we asked him for his Top 10 list.
‘‘Right off, I eliminated a hundred classic films in which the leading lady coughs into her hankie and promptly dies of consumption. Also eliminated were parasites ( Alien), syndromes ( The Elephant Man), and genetic diseases ( The Pride of the Yankees). Of course, there are many other virus movies coming to get you. Run.”
Night of the Living Dead (1968, George A. Romero) Qualifies because the sequels and remakes identify the cause of the sudden revival of corpses as viral.
Hawaii (1966, George Roy Hill) Sailors introduce some very bad STDs to the native girls. Julie Andrews provides comfort as a missionary.
The Matrix
(1999, Andy and Larry Wachowski). OK, so it’s a computer virus. It still counts.
Fantastic Voyage
(1966, Richard Fleischer). Raquel Welch is miniaturized and injected into a human bloodstream. Perhaps the only movie in which the virus is larger than the actors. At one point the stars are attacked by white blood cells—still a treat today.
Parting Glances
(1986, Bill Sherwood). Steve Buscemi is a fading New Wave star using his AIDS infection to keep an ex-boyfriend coming around to take care of him.
Mask of the Red Death
(1964, Roger Corman). Based on Edgar Allan Poe, a wicked Prince and his court hide from a plague inside a castle. I still have nightmares about Vincent Price wanting to sacrifice me to Satan.
28 Days Later
(2002, Danny Boyle). Animal activists free a monkey with a genetically engineered brain encephalitis that makes just about every Brit a zombie in 4 weeks. Launched the new zombie wave.
Cujo (1983, Lewis Teague). The Saint Bernard is cute; it’s just the rabies that make him so pissed off.
The Cassandra Crossing (1976, George Cosmatos). When experts suspect that Bubonic Plague has taken hold in a passenger train, Burt Lancaster must decide — risk a plague across Europe or send the virus and the all-star cast to a fiery death.
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt
(1989, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman). This Oscar winning documentary illuminates the lives of many people who were killed by a virus, each memorialized in a massive quilt sewn together by their loved ones.