Wednesday, October 17, 2018

October Horror Challenge 2018 #47: "Virus (1980)"






Look at all the cool posters this movie has! Chalk it up to my not paying attention, but I didn't realize what a big deal this movie was. I thought I was watching a regular old "virus kills a bunch of people" flick, but this movie appears to have been a pretty big deal, and it has some good stars in it, like Olivia Hussey and Edward James Olmos. It's also a lot more artful and poetic than I expected it to be. Looks like we have a bonafide real good movie on our hands!

This movie starts out with a terrified scientist selling the virus he's created because the government has promised him they're working with other scientists to create a vaccine (sure Jan). Soon, of course, it becomes clear that they were lying, and they lose control of the virus, and it rapidly spreads throughout the world, decimating the human population. A group of 863 people isolated in Antarctica are all that's left. They are devastated and trying to figure out if life is still worth living.

It's pretty bleak. I've watched a lot of "virus kills almost everyone" movies, like "Contagion," but as bleak as that movie was, I feel like it was still more hopeful than this movie, and I never thought I'd be calling that depressing movie "hopeful"! It's also scary how the virus was created and spread. A bunch of scientists, each working on a part of the virus without knowing about the others, and several branches of government all lying to each other about how deadly this virus is and whether we can cure it or not. Maybe there was a time when I would have thought that implausible, but with the way the government is running today, it suddenly seems terrifyingly possible. This movie is creepy and depressing as hell, but it has good acting and it's well put together, so it's definitely worth checking out.

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