The COVID-19 Movie Watch List
by Brian Moniz
Are you as sick of this quarantine as I am? In these last few months, most of the world has been in an isolation lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus, also known as the “Coronavirus”, quickly spread throughout the world and has been terrorizing, infecting, and killing people in a way we’ve only ever seen in the movies, with the exception of the bubonic plague. While this is a very serious pandemic we are currently living through, many of us are trying to make the best of this time to stay home and keep ourselves busy and entertained.
Sometimes movies are more than just actors playing out a story. Movies can warn us what can happen to civilization when sh*t hits the fan, and worse, what that can lead to if we don’t work together fast and learn from our mistakes of the past. From infectious diseases to cannibalistic zombies, here is a list of some great films that are alarmingly relevant to the time we are living in now.
Contagion (2011)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston, and Kate Winslet.
If there was ever a movie that predicted COVID-19 was coming, this is it. Contagion tells the story of a woman, (Paltrow), coming home from a business trip in China and returning to America infected with a deadly virus. Eventually, all of America and the world are in lockdown and many major cities are in complete quarantine. The World Health Organization discovers the virus came from China and spread through humans eating infected pigs and bats. Sound familiar? Contagion is scary in that it mirrors very much of what we are all facing now with the COVID-19 virus. You’d think with movies like this giving us a foreshadowing we would have been better prepared. I’ll save my personal political comments for another time, but Contagion is definitely worth the watch.
It Comes at Night (2017)
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, and Riley Keough.
A24 is a film company that has given us some of the most creepy movies of the last decade — Hereditary, Midsommar, The VVitch, Green Room, Ex Machina, and The Lighthouse — but there is one film under their belt that loosely resembles what we are going through with the COVID-19 pandemic, and that is It Comes at Night. Joel Edgerton and Carmen Ejogo star as a couple taking shelter in the woods with their son, far away from civilization and desperately trying to avoid any form of human contact. As soon as the film opens up, we witness first-hand what this “thing” does when it gets a hold of a human body and let me tell you it isn’t pretty. To go any further would spoil the film so I will stop there, but It Comes at Night is what would happen to us all if the COVID-19 virus isn’t contained soon and bad goes to worse very quickly.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr.
One of the most clever and well-written films on the list, 10 Cloverfield Lane is the story of a young girl named Michelle who gets pummeled off the road by a truck during a drive late at night and wakes up in an underground bunker. Her rescuer, a man known as Harold, explains to her that the end of the world is happening up above, and that he was the one who crashed into her as he was scrambling to get to his bomb shelter. Since he totaled her car, he felt obligated to bring her to safety as well. Also living in the bunker is a young farmer named Emmett who shoved his way in before Harold could lock out the rest of the world from whatever catastrophes were happening outside.
The three are forced to live together in a small bunker deep underground, rationing whatever food they have, flushing their toilet or taking a shower a very low number of times a week to conserve water, and using board games, old VHS movies, and puzzles to pass the time. Each day drags on slower than the one before, and while all of them become restless with “cabin fever”, it is John Goodman’s performance as Harold that steals the show; becoming more aggressive and suspicious of Emmett and Michelle as trust turns into paranoia and eventually leads to violence. The ending has been debated for its controversy, but the only way to know why is to see the film yourself!
28 Days Later (2002)
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson.
The zombie movie from England that introduced us to zombies that can run at full speed immediately gained recognition upon its release in 2002 and sparked a wave of films after it also adopting the “fast zombie” style. 28 Days Later begins with a man waking up in a bed, inside a hospital without a single other person in it. As he roams the deserted streets of London confused and scared with nothing more than his hospital gown, he realizes that an infectious disease has taken over the world and the vast majority of people have either become infected or are already dead. A few tough survivors take him in, and together they quietly move about the city searching for help. What makes this film so interesting is not the idea of zombies, but how the survivors interact with each other when laws and decency have no more meaning. What are we really capable of when we don’t have a system of rules and our actions don’t have consequences anymore?
The film skyrocketed the careers of everyone involved, most notably Murphy, Harris and Boyle, and spawned an equally successful sequel, 28 Weeks Later. While we are nowhere near this level of infection and violence with the COVID-19 virus where human being are eating each other (yet), 28 Days Later is a bloody-good thrill ride and a cult favorite for anyone who enjoys having the 💩 scared out of them!
Note* If you prefer comedy over horror, but still appreciate a good zombie movie, then skip 28 Days Later and instead watch the classic British horror-comedy Shaun of the Dead. Don’t forget to kill Philip!
Snowpiercer (2013)
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Starring: Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Song Kang-Ho, Ed Harris, and John Hurt.
Chris Evans leads an all-star cast in this Bong Joon-Ho (Parasite) film about the last remaining human beings alive all living together on a very long train traveling around the world on a singular track and must remain in motion or else everyone will die. In the outside world, climate change has grown so intense that the entire planet is covered in ice, and anyone not on the train is long dead. While this film is less about a pandemic, it reflects the issues poorer people face when dealing with those at the top taking everything and leaving almost nothing for everyone else. Poor people are struggling more than ever right now just to eat, let alone pay rent, and the rich are simply riding this out (no pun intended) in their mega homes and mansions stocked up with food, toiletries, water and many outlets of entertainment. The poor are having to choose between working and getting sick or staying home and starving, and most leaders don’t seem to care because it doesn’t affect them.
In Snowpiercer, Evans and his friends living in the back of the train revolt against the guards and authoritarian figures living the good life at the front of the train. While those at the front enjoy steak, sushi, and fresh produce, the poor people in the back have to eat… (I won’t spoil it!) As Evans and his friends fight their way to the front one car at a time, we are reminded that whether we are poor or rich, weak or strong, old or young, we are all in this together. Bong Joon-Ho reminds every upper-class person of the world out there, as he did in his 2019 film Parasite, that the rich need the poor more than they realize. If they die, who will keep the train running?
If we don’t take care of our poor, how do we expect to get produce from farms, who will run grocery stores and restaurants, and who will be left when this is all over if we don’t protect each other?
The Road (2009)
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Kodi-Smit-McPhee, and Guy Pierce.
Certainly not for everyone, The Road is a gritty post-apocalyptic thriller that shows us what the world looks like when humans ruin the planet, fresh water runs dry, food is as valuable as gold, and the last remaining people hunt each other down like pigs. Viggo Mortensen and his son stealthily hike through forests and deep into deserted cities in search of their next meal while avoiding other humans like the plague. With animals virtually extinct and humans so hungry that they resort to cannibalism, Mortensen and his son live in paranoia, always looking over their shoulder to see what is producing every little sound they hear around them. The Road is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy who is known to produce works that are as violent as they are brilliant. While this fictional movie is a giant leap from where we are now, the message remains the same that if we don’t better prepare for the worst that is yet to come and learn from our warning signs, the world could rebel against us. This movie is very graphic and definitely not for those who don’t like violence and gore.
The Platform (2019)
Director: Glader Gaztelu-Urrutia
Starring: Ivan Massague, Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan, and Emilio Buale Coka.
Brought to us from Spain and dubbed/subtitled in English, The Platform is arguably the most talked about movie on Netflix today. A man wakes up in a prison-like building that is hundreds of floors deep. Level 0 is at the top, then level 1, then level 2, and so on until level 250 and beyond. He learns through his cellmate that there are two people living on each level, and that once a day a large platform of fresh food lowers down to every level one at a time until it reaches the bottom. The inhabitants of each level get only a few minutes to eat as much food from the platform as they can before it lowers down to the next level for the ones below. By the time the platform reaches the 70’s almost all of the food has been eaten and anyone stuck in lower levels are out of luck and face starvation, with many resorting to suicide or cannibalism. Every month the prison rotates the people randomly throughout the levels. You might wake up on level 8 this month and have access to all the food you want for this month, but then be put on level 162 next month and by the time the platform reaches your level for the day there is nothing but empty plates. If everyone only ate the food they needed, the food would reach everyone at the bottom.
The Platform is drowning in metaphors about poor vs. rich, sick vs. healthy, liberal vs. conservative, and marinates in its own theme of “dog eat dog” from beginning to end. The acting is solid, the feel is authentic, and the ending (while a little bit of a letdown) gives optimistic hope to those who fight to fix a broken system that only works for those lucky enough to be born at the top. Hoarding toilet paper, sanitizer, face masks, gloves and supplies during this scary time seems like a smart idea, until you remember that every extra thing you take for yourself is one less thing someone in more need than you will get for themselves.
Have any other pandemic-related or post-apocalyptic movies to recommend? Leave a comment below with your list! In the meantime stay safe, stay optimistic, and most importantly, STAY HOME!
About the Author:
Brian Moniz is from San Jose, Calif. He studied filmmaking and writing at San Jose State University from 2010–2013 and got his bachelor’s degree in Radio-TV-Film. Throughout his high school and college years, he worked as a music and movie journalist and critic. Having only recently come out of the closet himself in 2014, Brian enjoys writing about LGBTQ issues. His only regret when it comes to his sexuality is that he didn’t come out sooner.
