From 'Contagion' to 'Containment,' here are ten films you can watch while under COVID-19 community quarantine.
'Contagion,' a 2011 movie directed by Steven Soderbergh, recently became the talk of the town because of its notable similarities with the world's current situation with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes this film as a good example of social movements in a time of a viral outbreak. They said, “Soderbergh presents collective patterns of behavior during the epidemic, which lead to social discord.”
'Outbreak' is a 1995 film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. The story revolves around a deadly virus spreading throughout a California town, carried by a monkey host from the African rain forest to America. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) included this movie in their article 'Social Responses to Epidemics Depicted by Cinema.'
'93 Days,' a 2016 drama-thriller film directed and co-produced by Steve Gukas, is based on a true story in the time of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Nigeria which infected 21 million people. It also centers on the sacrifices of the heroic health workers who helped contain the deadly virus.
'Virus' is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language film, directed and co-produced by Aashiq Abu. It tells about the story of a group of courageous individuals who risked their lives in an attempt to curb the epidemic Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala in 2018.
'Flu' is a 2013 South Korean film written and directed by Kim Sung-su, about a novel disease (with similarity to the strain of avian influenza AH5N1 virus) that kills in 36 hours once infected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also mentioned this movie in their article 'Social Responses to Epidemics Depicted by Cinema.'
'Panic in the Streets' is a 1950 noir film directed by Elia Kazan. The story focuses on a doctor and a policeman in New Orleans who only have 48 hours to investigate and prevent an epidemic of pneumonic plague. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also cited this movie in their article 'Social Responses to Epidemics Depicted by Cinema.'
'It Comes at Night' is a 2017 film written and directed by Trey Edward Shults. It concentrates on the two families who are forced to share a desolate home after a deadly virus terrorized the world, leaving only a few survivors.
'Carriers,' a 2009 post-apocalyptic film written and directed by Alex and David Pastor, is about a group of people who embarked on a road trip to escape a pandemic. Except for the fact that it carries a zombie element in the story, the movie has a few parallels in terms of prevention against the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
'Blindness' is a 2008 film directed by Fernando Meirelles and an adaptation of the 1995 novel written by Portuguese author Jose Saramago. The drama-mystery story tells about a society suffering an epidemic known as the 'white sickness' that blinds everyone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that this movie “considers the human capacity for prejudice, indifference, selfishness, and an easy resort to aggression and violence.”
'Containment' is a 2015 film written by Davide Lemon and directed Neil Mcenery-West. The story revolves around the residents who were contained in their apartments, without water and electricity, due to an epidemic outbreak.