Writer: Barbara Marshall, Christopher Landon (Screenplay)
Starring: Sofia Black-D’Elia, Analigh Tipton, Travis Tope, Michael Kelly, Machine Gun Kelly, John Cothran
Plot: Following the outbreak of a virus that wipes out the majority of the human population, a young woman documents her family’s new life in quarantine and tries to protect her infected sister.
Tagline – Fear what’s inside
Runtime: 1 Hour 25 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Great Story Telling, Bland Characters
Story: Viral starts as we meet the teenage sisters Emma (Black-D’Elia) the good one, Stacey (Tipton) the rebellious one, have moved to a new town, new home with their father Michael (Keely) taking a biology teacher role. There reports that a disease is spreading through the human population and when one of Emma’s friends gets infected, it seems like it has come home.
When Michael heading off to collect his wife, he leaves the girls to look after themselves, shouldn’t be a problem, until the military arrive with rations to keel them inside during the outbreak. The girls join the rest of the teenagers at a party against the curfew rules which leads to the virus spreading and the two needing to learn to survive and keep each other alive.
Thoughts on Viral
Characters – Emma is the good, well-behaved of the two girls, she is pure innocence compared to her sister, she is like every other teenager in this mould, she fancies a guy and has been getting on with her best friend. Stacey is the older sister, rebellious by skipping classes and dating generic metal head, she always pushes Emma into things she doesn’t want to do. Evan is the crush across the road, he is used as the love interest nothing more.
Performances – The lead girls of Sofia Black-D’Elia and Analeigh Tipton are good through they film, they hit their marks feeling like the both have good chemistry for sisters. The rest of the cast doesn’t get too much time to do anything if we are being honest, so it would be unfair to slam them.
Story – We know I like a good zombie story, we also know many have been done too often the same. This story brings us an original spin on the idea, well mostly original. This time we look at the early break out of a virus which is turning people into infected people, like zombies, we see the quarantine, how the military will enforce it and follow sisters trying to survive this. This is the positive side of things, which I did like, the problems in this story come from the idea, things only go bad when they break basic curfew rules which would have kept them safe for the most part, we do also have a giant failing to explain how the virus spreads, we do touch on ideas, but soon nothing seems to make sense.
Horror-Sci-Fi – This is a horror movie that uses zombie like infection to create the scares, while not scary it is on the levels you would be expecting to see things. The sci-fi side of things shows us just what will be happening to the victims as they slowly start to turn.
Settings – The film is set in a new suburban area which shows us the groups of people that would be living there, and how they would need to come off.
Special Effects – The effects are strong through the film which are great when we see the infection spreading.
Scene of the Movie – Removing the infection.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The characters are frustrating with their mistakes.
Final Thoughts – This is a solid entry to the zombie like sub-genre of horror, this is one to look past the weakness to enjoy the strengths.
Overall: The world of zombies has a new enjoyable experience.
Rating