Best Viral Outbreak Movies – Top Ten Hits

With the world in lockdown with the mysterious Corona virus looming over our heads like a dark cloud, what better time than now to watch some of the greatest viral outbreak movies to see how our fictional heroes managed to survive when in our position.

Here are top ten viral outbreak movies.

10. Twelve Monkeys

A Terry Gilliam master piece from back in 1995, Twelve Monkeys is a sci-fi dystopian thriller set in Philadelphia 2035. With most of the human race wiped out from a virus is 1996, the remaining inhabitants are desperate to find a cure.  Unbalanced inmate (Bruce Willis) volunteers to go back into the past to get his hands on a sample of the virus so that scientists can find a cure. He agrees to do so in order to reduce his sentence. But time travel isn’t always as easy as it seems and the past is more complicated than the future. Brad Pitt also stars in the movie and was able to bag the Best Supporting Actor nomination for being the leader of the Twelve Monkey army. 

9. It Comes at Night

Another masterpiece by A24 Production Company that has given us brilliant movies such as Hereditary and The Witch, this movie is a horror thriller. Following the aftermath of a viral outbreak, a family who believe they are out alone in the world, survive by living out in the woods until one day they stumble across a bunch of other survivors. Although initially distrustful of the other family, the eventually agree to share their resources but as time goes on, strange things start to happen and suspicions start to rise that perhaps one of the survivors isn’t completely healthy as they claim to be! It is one of the best viral outbreak movies.

8. 28 Days Later

Imagine waking up from a coma to find London deserted as a result of a virus. That’s what Cillian Murphy has to face.  A highly contagious and rage inducing virus is released by a group of animal right activists who were trying to free chimps affected with said virus which was a result of an experiment gone wrong.  Jim wakes up from his coma and tries to seek out other survivors but that isn’t as easy as it seems as he constantly has to fight of those affected by the virus. As he runs for his life, he is rescues by two people Selena and Mark and together they figure out a way to survive with the chances piled against them.

7. Blindness

A slightly different take on viral outbreak movies, this one has little to do with science and more to do with human nature and how challenging it is for humans to adapt to changing circumstances that are beyond their control, somewhat similar to what we have to face with the COVID 19 outbreak. 

Starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, a disease has spread rapidly across the world which renders those affected blind. Those affected are kept in quarantine in an abandoned mental hospital and eventually end up created a society of the blind. However, soon the society starts to crumble as those who are physically stronger and criminals begin to prey on the weak. The only witness to what’s going on is one woman whose eyesight hasn’t been affected by the virus. While keeping her eyesight a secret she helps a group of seven who have become like a family to her and leads them out of quarantine and what she hopes into survival.