The following copyright Epidemic Cinema Database supports the research for my essay, “See the Predictability in the Chaos of Pandemics,” from Joan Ferrante and Chris Caldeira, eds. (Sage, 2021), and my book-in-progress, Playing Chess with Death: Epidemic Films to Die For (A Memoir of the Covid-19 Plague Year).
FILM TITLE AND PATHOGEN OR NON-PATHOGENIC AGENT
The ADS Epidemic (1987)—HIV/AIDS
And the Band Played On (1993)—HIV/AIDS
The Andromeda Strain (1971)—mutating alien crystalline “virus”
The Andromeda Strain (2008)—mutating alien crystalline “virus”
Arrowsmith (1931)—bacteria: Clostridium chauvoei, blackleg in cattle, and Yersinia pestis, bubonic plague
Awakenings (1979)—unknown vector for encephalitis lethargica
Awakenings (1990)—unknown vector for encephalitis lethargica
Between (2015-16)—unknown virus
Bigger Than Life (1956)–cortisone
Black Death (2010)—bubonic plague
Blindness (2008)—unknown disease vector
Bob Geldorf on AIDS (1987)—HIV/AIDS
Body Snatchers: The Invasion Continues (1994)—alien seed pods
Buddies (1985)—HIV-AIDS
Cargo (2017)—unknown zombie vector
The Cassandra Crossing (1976)—unspecified plague virus
Chasing Heroin (2016)–heroin
Children of Men (2006)—infertility (male) virus
The Citadel (1939)—Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB)
The Coming Pandemic (2005)– avian virus H5N1
Contagion (2011)—mutating fictional virus MEV-1
Containment (2016)—unknown virus
Cooked: Survival by Zipcode (2019)—extremely high heat
Corona (2020)–Covid-19
Corona: End of the World (2020)—Covid-19
CoronaNation(2020)—Covid-19
Coronavirus Capitalism—And How to Beat It (2020)—Covid-19
Coronavirus Explained (2020)—Covid-19
Coronavirus Pandemic (2020)—Covid-19
The Cured (2018)—fictitional Maze virus
The Day of the Dead (1985)—blood-based infection
Day of the Triffids (1963)—pollen on meteorites
Deranged (2012)—mutant parasitic horsehair worms
District 9 (2009)—alien spaceship fuel
Do No Harm: The Opioid Epidemic (2019)—OxyContin, heroin, fentanyl
Doomsday Book (2012)—unknown zombie virus
Dr. Bull (1933)—typhus and unknown paralytic vector
Dr. Erhlich’s Magic Bullet (1940)—syphilis; diptheria
An Early Frost (1985)—HIV/AIDS
Ebola Virus Exposed: The Terrifying Modern Plague (2014)—Ebola virus
80,000 Suspects (1963)—small pox virus
11th Hour (2006)—HGT: hybrid smallpox (variola virus)-tanapox virus (riverine smallpox)
11th Hour (2008-9)—smallpox (variola virus)
Epidemic (1987)—unknown meta plague (caused by breath? sight?)
The Evening Hour (2020)–OxyContin
The Faculty (1998)—larval mesozoan parasites
Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America (2006)—avian virus H5N1
Fatal Attraction (1987)—unsafe sex
Fatal Error (1999)—fictional computer virus
Fields of Gold (2002)—transgenic bacteria (Vancomycin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)
The Final Inch (2009)—polio virus
Flu (2013)—H5N1 virus
The Fly (1986)—HGT (Horizontal Gene Transfer): human/fly
From Flint: Voices from a Poisoned City (2015)–lead in city water supply
The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)—fungal pathogen; HGT: human/fungus
Helix (2014-15)—fictional Vecter virus
The Hot Zone (1994)—Ebola virus
The Hot Zone (2019)—Ebola virus
How to Survive a Plague (2012)—polio virus
Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria (2013)— Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia; bacteria with New metallo β-lactamase NDM-1 resistance gene
I Am Legend (2007)—fictional Krippin virus
Impulse (1984)—toxic waste water
Infection (2004)—mental telepathy and/or gree
Inside Italy’s Covid War (2020)—Covid-19
Intimate Agony (1983)–herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2)
Intimate Contact (1987)—HIV/AIDS
Interrupted Melody (1955)—polio virus
The Invasion (2007)—alien virus
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)—alien seed pods
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)—alien seed pods
Isle of the Dead (1945)—septicemic (bacterial) plague; fictional undead (vorvolakas)
It Follows (2015)—supernatural STD
It Comes at Night (2017)—unknown virus
It Stains the Sands Red (2016)—unknown zombie vector
La Jetee or The Observation Deck (1962)—unknown virus
Jezebel (1938)—yellow fever flavivirus
The Killer that Stalked New York (1950)—smallpox virus
Land of the Dead (2005)—blood-based infection
The Last Days (2013)—agoraphobic pathogen
The Last Man on Earth (1924)—masculitis (male sterility) virus
The Last Man on Earth (1964)—bacterial vampire plague
The Last Ship (2014-18)—fictional Red Flu
The Lazarus Effect (2010)—HIV/AIDS
The Lazarus Effect (2015)—fictional serum for prolonging comas
The Leakers (2018)–Zika virus
Life After People (2008)—no vectors
Lifeforce (1985)–alien sexual contact
Little Joe (2019)–pollen
Longtime Companion (1990)—HIV/AIDS
Madame Curie (1943)–radioactivity
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)—fictional Chimera virus
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988)–Black Plague
93 Days (2013)—Ebola virus
No Sad Songs for Me (1950)–cancer
The Omega Man (1971)—albino-genic mutant virus
The Origins of AIDS (2004)—HIV/AIDS
Outbreak (1998)—fictional Motuba virus
Outbreak: Anatomy of a Plague (2010): smallpox virus (Red Plague)
The Painted Veil (1934)–cholera bacteria
The Painted Veil (2006)—cholera bacteria
Pandemic (2007)—plague virus
Pandemic (2009)—plague virus
Pandemic (2016)—plague virus
Pandemic (2020)—plague virus
Panic in the Streets (1950)—bacteria (pneumonic plague)
A Paralyzing Fear: The Story of Polio in America (1998): polio virus
Parting Glances (1986)—HIV/AIDS
The Passage (2019)—vampiric virus
Peninsula (2020)—unknown zombie vector
Perfect Sense (2011)—fictional SOS (Sensory Olfactory Syndrome) virus
La Peste (1979)—unknown plague vector
Pestilent City (1965)—urban anomie
Phase IV (1974)—mutating gene in ants
Philadelphia (1993)—HIV/AIDS
The Plague (1979)—fictional bacteria M3: The Gemini Strain
Plandemic (2020)—Covid-19
The Polio Crusade (2009)—polio virus
Pontypool (2008)—spoken English words
Pripyat (1999)—radioactivity
The Quiet Killer (1992)—bubonic plague
Radioactivity (2020)– radioactivity
Rain (2011)—flower-based virus
ReGenesis ( 2004-08)—numerous disease vectors; HGT
Remember Me (1955)—polio virus
Resident Evil (2002)—fictional T-virus
Rumor of Blue Sky (2009)— smog with poisonous gases
Safe (1995)—multiple chemical sensitivity
Screen Talk (2014-20)—fictional airborne respiratory virus
Sea Fever (2020)—marine parasites
The Seventh Seal (1957)—bubonic plague virus
The Seventh Sin (1957)–cholera bacteria
76 Days (2020)—Covid-19
Shaun of the Dead (2004)—unknown zombie vector
Shivers (1975)—fecal parasites
Smallpox (2002)—smallpox virus
Splice (2009)—human/animal HGT
The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)–Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) and Rabies (Rabies lyssavirus)
The Strain (2014-15)—fictional parasitic (vampiric) worms; undead strigoi
Screen-Talk (2014-20)—fictional respiratory virus
Survivors—(1975)—virus
Survivors—(2002)—virus
Sweet as You Are (1988)—HIV/AIDS
Totally Under Control (2020)—Covid-19
Train to Busan (2016)—unknown zombie vector
Training Ground (2006)—unknown virus
12 Monkeys (1995)—unknown virus
28 Days Later (2002)—fictional “rage” virus
28 Weeks Later (2007)—fictional “rage” virus
Under the Skin—alien sexual contact
Utopia (2013-14)—fictional Deel’s Syndrome and Russian flu
Utopia (2020-21)—fictional Diel’s Syndrome and Peruvian flu plus a sterility vector
Village of the Damned (1960)—alien pregnancies
The Virus: What Went Wrong? (2020)—Covid-19
Virus (1980)—fictional virus MM88
Virus (1995)—plague
Virus (1999)—alien cyber Intelligence: “Humans are the virus”
Virus (2019)–Nipah virus
Warm Bodies (2013)—zombie bite
We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918 (2010)–virus
World War Z (2013)—zombie sound-sensitive virus
© Tom Zaniello
Globalization and Film 