OPINION: The 10 Best Pandemic Horror Movies To Binge During Quarantine

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) officially forced the world’s population into a quarantine. This pandemic has got us nothing to do but to either eat, work, exercise, sleep, and/or entertain ourselves. While others watch escapist fantasies and absurd reality TV to cope, there are others who turn to a more gory and dystopian alternative: pandemic horror movies.

Here are 10 of the best pandemic horror movies to watch during the quarantine:

This current pandemic has us terrified. However, a story about exactly the same thing may be one way to grapple with the fear. With that said, here comes the list of pandemic horror movies you can watch to either ease your worries or willfully make yourself panic even more.

Outbreak

This 1995 American medical disaster film gave life to Richard Preston‘s non-fiction book The Hot Zone. It stars Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, and Donald Sutherland. Outbreak starts with a monkey who was captured in Africa and sent to a pet store in a fictional town in California. Unknowingly, this said monkey also carries a fictional Ebola-like virus that made the said town the ground-zero for the outbreak. The CDC and military medical researchers try to contain and treat the infected. Of course, panic and chaos ensue.

The Flu

This 2013 South Korean disaster film revolves around an outbreak of a deadly strain of H5N1 that kills victims within 36-hours. It stars Soo Ae, Jang Hyuk, Park Min-ha, and Yoo Hae-jin among others. The Flu starts with two brothers finding illegal immigrants dying in a shipping container from an unknown illness. Unknowingly, they also carry the disease as the conditions in the shipping container allowed the virus to mutate. Planning to find the shipping container, KCDC sees rats feeding on the corpses and escaping into the city. With people experiencing symptoms like rashes and vomiting of blackened blood, the government has also initiated a city-wide quarantine.

Deranged

Another film from South Korea, this 2012 science fiction stars Kim Myung-min, Kim Dong-wan, Moon Jung-hee, and Lee Ha-nui. Deranged starts with a series of dead bodies found floating in the Han River. The deaths are also related to a fatal outbreak of virus-infected mutant parasitic horsehair worms, called Yeongasi, which can control the human brain. The infected experience extreme hunger without appropriate weight gain and excessive unquenchable thirst. The worms become mature and ready to reproduce. Then, they jump into the river to allow the worms to come out of the body.

Train to Busan

Another South Korean entry, Train to Busan may be the best zombie movie and the best outbreak movie of the 21st century. This 2016 film stars Gong Yoo, Kim Su-an, Jung yu-mi, and Ma Dong-seok. Workaholic father and his daughter boarded the train to Busan to indulge her wish to spend her birthday with her mother. Unknowingly, an infected person also boards the train and spreads the condition to other passengers. They try to save the uninfected. Then, they set their coarse to the quarantined area near Busan. Spoiler alert, it also has the best and saddest ending ever.

World War Z

This 2013 American apocalyptic action-horror film gave life to Max Brooks‘ 2006 novel of the same name. World War Z stars Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, and Daniella Kertesz among others. Former UN employee, his wife, and two daughters are experiencing heavy Philadelphia traffic. Suddenly, sound-attracted zombies overrun the city and they escape to take refuge in an apartment in New Jersey, home to a couple and their young son. As zombies invade the building, the family and the young son escape through a helicopter to a US Navy vessel where leaders also analyze the spreading pandemic who enlists his help to search for the source.

I Am Legend

This 2007 American post-apocalyptic action thriller movie gave life to Richard Matheson‘s 1954 novel of the same name. With Will Smith staring in I Am Legend, it revolved around himself being alone in the city of New York. Originally created to cure cancer, a virus has also wiped out most of mankind leaving him the only human alive. Immune to the virus, he works to develop a cure while defending himself and his German Shepherd, Sam, from the hostile mutants.

Resident Evil

This 2002 action horror film stars Mila Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, and James Purefoy among others. Resident Evil sees that the security has been breached in a top secret underground research facility where scientists keep a deadly virus that could contaminate the entire world. Unfortunately, the thief has also released the virus. Of course, it started to ensue panic and chaos. Now, an elite team dedicate themselves to stop it from infecting and mutating an entire human race in just three hours or else the world will go into shambles.

The Maze Runner

This 2014 American dystopian science fiction film gave life to James Dashner‘s 2009 novel of the same name. This stars Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Will Poulter, and Patricia Clarkson. The Maze Runner follows their story as a group of boys (and one girl) who awakens in a rusty elevator with no memory of who they are. They have been delivered to the middle of an intricate maze, trying to find their way out of the ever-changing labyrinth. Unbeknownst to them, a virus called The Flare has devastated the humanity and as survivors, they are forced into small enclaves of civilization they call The Glade.

Warm Bodies

This 2013 American paranormal romantic zombie comedy film gave life to Isaac Marion‘s novel of the same name. Warm Bodies stars Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Analeigh Tipton, and John Malkovich. The film focuses on the development of the relationship between the two leads, a young human woman and a zombie man eight years after a zombie apocalypse. Noted for displaying human characteristics in zombie characters and for being told from a zombie’s perspective.

REC

This 2007 Spanish found-footage horror film stars Manuela Velasco and Pablo Rosso among others. REC centers on a reporter and her cameraman covering a firefighter intervention in an apartment building in Barcelona. Some of the building’s occupants show animalistic and murderous behavior that injured police officers and other firefighters. As they carry the injured downstairs and out the building, they find that the police and military have sealed off the building and trapped them inside. REC was so good that American filmmakers decided to create an adaptation of this titled, Quarantine.