Okay, so there are some pretty big plot holes, but Viral is nevertheless an effective horror film. The “virus” is actually a parasite spread by blood, which carriers cough in your face, if they don’t kill you first in a fit of parasite-induced rage. The really scary thing is that this movie was produced before Covid-19 and the government response, as presented in the movie, is somewhat believable. Nevertheless, it retains its ability to be a story about family and loyalty. There are some missed opportunities in that regard, but overall it’s fairly well done. It certainly keeps the tension going and I feel some spoilers coming on so I’ll warn you here. A Blumhouse production, it seems to have had a reasonable budget. And there’s a solid attempt to have a storyline with characters you care about.
Sisters Stacy and Emma are trying to adjust to a new school system as news reports increasingly focus on a new, and lethal, virus. Their California community is the site of the first U.S. outbreak and the initial panic isn’t unlike what happened in 2019. I’m a little surprised that, given that development, the movie didn’t gain more residual watching. In any case, a quarantine and curfew are set up, but the teens of the housing development decide to have a party. Kids will be kids, after all. Of course, an infected guy is there and Stacy, the older sister, gets infected. Their parents were caught outside the quarantine zone, so they have to try to survive on their own. Emma has a new boyfriend—the guy next door—and he urges Emma to leave her sister, but she won’t. Martial law is declared and “nests” of the infected are being bombed by the government. Emma and boyfriend manage to survive, but the rest of the town’s a wasteland.
As I say, the implications are the really scary part. Governments have the mandate to protect the greatest number of people—isn’t that utilitarianism, by default?—and decide to cut their losses and destroy infected communities because there’s no stopping the disease. Even as the gaps in the story kept coming up, I was asking myself would our government do such a thing. I could find nothing to dissuade me that it would. Self-preservation is human nature. As is might makes right. Our government, for my entire life, has consisted of the wealthy and one thing we know about those with money is that they’ll do whatever they can to protect their interests. Oh, and there are a number of effective jump startles as well. But they’re not as scary as the government.
