7 Pandemic-Themed Films To Binge During Quarantine

Whether you're under government mandated stay-at-home orders or self-imposed ones, we're all trying to do our part to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Need a few binge recommendations to occupy your time indoors? Here are some pandemic-themed films that offer a bit of catharsis in the time of corona.

Perfect Sense

IFC Films

Perfect Sense explores the love story between an epidemiologist and a chef as the world falls prey to a mysterious pandemic. This film asks the question: What would happen if every person on the planet lost each of their five senses? An interesting exploration of the resilience of love and the human spirit in the face of adversity.

28 Days Later

DNA Films

One of Danny Boyle’s best. This raw and gritty flick follows a coma patient who wakes up to a post-apocalyptic UK. The country has been devastated by a contagious, rage-inducing virus that turns its victims into cannibal killers. He and a handful of survivors face many heart-pounding horrors and challenges as they attempt to survive. A great social commentary on rage culture and the inhumanity of losing oneself to anger and violence.

Contagion

Participant Media

This star-studded thriller by Steven Soderbergh follows multiple narratives, exploring not only the spread of a virus, but the societal fallout, the ridiculous conspiracy theorists, the attempts by health officials to contain the virus, and the introduction of a potential vaccine by medical researchers. This film is an extreme, but realistic portrayal of a world-wide health crisis with striking and eerie similarities to our current coronavirus situation.

Outbreak

Warner Bros. Pictures

Loosely based on Richard Preston's 'The Hot Zone,' a nonfiction account of Africa's Ebola pandemic, Outbreak opens on Zaire which has been ravaged by the fictional and deadly virus Motaba. After officials believe it has been contained, a series of unfortunate events occur due to an infected capuchin monkey, causing an outbreak of the virus in a small town in California. Doctors fight to save the town from this virus and from the government 'nuclear option,' while also uncovering hidden military secrets.

Zombieland

Columbia Pictures

For a bit of levity on our list, check out this classic zombie apocalypse comedy. When a strain of mad cow disease mutates into ‘mad person disease,’ a rag-tag team of survivors lead by Tallahassee, aka Woody Harrelson, go on a wild journey to find one place in the United States free of zombies: an amusement park.

Influenza 1918 and The Polio Crusade

PBS

For a taste of non-fiction, check out these two PBS documentaries about the deadliest pandemic of the 20th century and the ‘invisible’ disease that kept the world on edge for nearly four decades. These films are as educational as they are hauntingly familiar to the pandemic crisis we are currently facing. We can learn a lot from history.