Director Soderbergh's movie Contagion

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No one can wipe out the virus movie genre

Romero's 1973 'The Crazies' was about more than a contagion: The breakdown of

social order was what fascinated the low-budget director

By Dennis Lim • Los Angeles Times • February 26, 2010

Romero's " The Crazies " (1973) has always existed in the shadow of his

zombie movies, but this epidemic thriller is perhaps the horror maestro's most

provocative exploration of his great theme: the collapse of social order. A new

remake, directed by Breck Eisner and also titled " The Crazies, " opens Friday.

Back in the crisis-ridden early '70s, the film's queasy premise must have

carried more than a ring of real-world plausibility (as it certainly does in our

jittery present of viral scares and terror threats). A military plane crashes in

western Pennsylvania, releasing a mystery virus into the water supply and

turning the nearby residents homicidally insane. The government goes into

cover-up mode and even considers dropping a bomb on the infected town. The

virus, it turns out, was being developed as a biochemical weapon. Soldiers clad

in hazmat suits and gas masks sweep in, and before long, the gun-owning citizens

start to fight back.

" The Crazies " belongs to the cycle of virus movies that was in vogue in that

era. It shares some plot points with Wise's " The Andromeda Strain "

(1971), a slow-burning bio-thriller adapted from a Crichton novel, about

a team of scientists battling an alien virus that turns blood into powder.

Two years after " The Crazies, " a young Cronenberg made " Shivers, " the

first of his many body-horror movies, about a sexually transmitted parasite. The

quintessential Hollywood genre of the '70s — the all-star disaster movie — got a

bacteriological spin with " The Cassandra Crossing " (1976), which exposes the

passengers on a trans-European train to pneumonic plague.

Over the years, virus movies have often resonated with — or even openly

exploited — the contagion of the moment. The deadly bug in " Outbreak " (1995) is

modeled on the Ebola virus that had grabbed headlines a few years earlier. Danny

Boyle's " 28 Days Later, " a clear descendant of " The Crazies, " opened in 2003,

with anthrax and SARS fresh in the minds of audiences.

With fears still lingering over the swine flu pandemic, Soderbergh has

announced he'll direct an epidemic movie called " Contagion. "

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