With over 10 lakh cases confirming and over 50,000 deaths to date, the COVID-19 is already marking its domination! Silently the virus is spreading every second we can possibly count, and the streets in the entire world are driven empty. During these devastating days of the global pandemic, we are left with no choice but to stay home and keep ourselves, as well as others, away and safe from the virus.
Today, we’ve come up with the best 20 pandemic movies to watch while we are in quarantine. The movies listed above are picked by evaluating their true rating, personal choices, and researching. If we can save the world by chilling on our couch, then why making it boring? Settle in for a great treat with these movies, hand-picked for you. So without any further ado, let’s look into the best 20 pandemic movies to watch in quarantine time.
Best 20 Pandemic Movies to Watch in Quarantine Time
1. Panic in the Streets, 1950
This is a thriller by Elia Kazan with a story revolving around the deadly outbreak of pneumonic plague. Clint Reed, a heroic doctor, is called for the autopsy of an unknown man. He discovers that pneumonic plague was the reason for the death. Revealing his discovery to the mayor and city officials, Captain Tom Warren and his wife joins Nancy Reed to race against time to find out where the unknown man came from and a cure to the outbreak.
IMDb = 7.3/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 96%
2. 28 Days Later, 2002
This Horror/Sci-fi film is a masterpiece by Danny Boyle. This film features a zombie attack, which originated through a mysterious virus outbreak. Amidst the havoc in the United Kingdom, a team of survivors tries to not fall prey to the zombies after with the virus. They try to cope with the aftermath, find security, and goes through hardships to wait to be rescued.
3. Dawn of the Dead, 1978
This is a zombie Horror/Splatter movie under the direction of George A. Romero. The film starts as a horde of deadly zombies take over the U.S, leaving the entire population in fear. The survivors are desperate to struggle and find their safe haven. In Pennsylvania, radio-station employee Stephen and his girlfriend, Francine, escape in the station helicopter, accompanied by two renegade SWAT members, Roger and Pete. The group retreats to the haven of an enclosed shopping center to make what could be humanity’s last stand.
IMDb = 7.6/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 87%
IMDb = 7.9/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 93%
4. Train to Busan, 2016
This is a true Horror/Thriller masterpiece by Yeon Sang-ho. A businessman and his daughter board a train to Busan as an epidemic begins ripping through South Korea. Everything goes to hell when the infection reaches the passengers and you will see how the father fights to keep his daughter safe. This movie portraits a terrifying zombie outbreak and will put you at the edge of your seat.
IMDb = 7.5/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 93%
5. World War Z, 2013
This is another Horror/Action movie portraying Zombies, made under the direction of Marc Forster, starring Brad Pitt. Gerry, a former United Nations employee, unexpectedly finds himself in a race against time as he investigates a threatening virus that turns humans into zombies. He hangs on to everything he can to find its source and cure before the outbreak turns the world into a zombies’ homeland!
IMDb = 7/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 66%
Advertisement
6. Virus, 2019
The virus is an Indian movie by Aashiq Abu based on true events. The state of Kerala faces a tremendous outbreak of the life-threatening Nipah virus. A group of courageous officials and public risks their lives in an attempt to curb the epidemic as they find its origination. The film portraits the true events in Kerala when the state was terrified of the Nipah outbreak. Though lives did fall to the virus, the state was, however, able to overcome the outbreak with their extreme will and courage.
IMDb = 8.1/10
7. I Am Legend, 2007
This is a Sci-fi/Horror movie by Francis Lawrence, starring Will Smith. Virologist Robert Neville lives in a hollowed-out Manhattan and fights vampiric monsters called Darkseekers after a modified measles virus, that was meant to cure cancer. When he meets a pair of immune humans, he is given renewed hope that he can make a cure and attempts to find a way to reverse the effects of the man-made virus by using his own immune blood.
IMDb = 7.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 68%
8. Ravenous, 1999
This is a Horror/Comedy movie directed by Antonia Bird. Captain John, who is posted in the remote Sierra Nevada, finds himself in some rather crazy company. Soon, a stranger who has apparently barely made it alive relates tales of cannibalism and gore. The film, however, came up with the idea of Cannibals rather than zombies, which makes it stand out from the every time zombie classics.
IMDb = 7/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 47%
10. Children of Men, 2006
Children of Men is a Sci-fi/Thriller movie by Alfonso Cuarón. A mysterious illness prompted every woman in the world to miscarry in the early 2000s, and for nearly 20 years since that event — which happened around the same time as a highly deadly flu pandemic —, no new children have been born. 18 years of human infertility have left society on the verge of extinction. But if there’s hope for humanity, it might come in the form of a woman who miraculously gets pregnant. To stop extinction, Theo, a bureaucrat, tries all he can to transport her to safety.
IMDb = 7.9/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 92%
11. Perfect Sense, 2011
This is a Romance/Drama film directed by David Mackenzie. When a womanizing chef and a shy scientist become lovers, their fledgling romance soon faces a deadly challenge: a viral epidemic that causes people to lose their sensory perception. In this romantic, pandemic movie, a disease is slowly robbing humanity of its senses, one by one, with each loss being accompanied by an out-of-control emotion: When you lose your sense of smell, for example, you overload on grief.
12. The Painted Veil, 2006
The Painted Veil is a Romance/Drama film by John Curran. Dr. Walter gets married to the beautiful Kitty who becomes his bored socialite wife. He soon finds out that she is cheating on him. She has an affair with another man, which prompts her husband to demand that she accompany him to China. Battling his way through life, he heads to China to fight a dreaded disease that has spread in a village.
IMDb = 7.1/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 57%
13. The Andromeda Strain, 1971
This is a Sci-fi/Thriller movie under the direction of Robert Wise, based on the book by Michael Crichton. The film starts off as a satellite crashes in a small town near Arizona. Everyone in the community dies a few days after the crash and the government finds out about the alien virus that accompanied the satellite. This leads the government to bring in a few scientists to study and defeat the alien virus.
IMDb = 7.5/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 74%
IMDb = 7.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 69%
14. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978
This Sci-fi/Horror movie by Philip Kaufman goes extreme on making the viewers bite onto their nails. This classic horror film is set in San Francisco. Matthew Bennell assumes that when a friend complains about her husband’s strange mood, it’s a marital issue. However, he begins to worry as more people report similar observations. His concern is confirmed when writer Jack Bellicec and his wife discover a mutated corpse. Besieged by an invisible enemy, Bennell must work quickly before the city is hunted down!
15. Shaun of the Dead, 2004
Shaun of the Dead is a Comedy/Horror film directed by Edgar Wright. The main character in the movie, Shaun, is a salesman whose life has no direction. However, his uneventful life takes a sudden turn when he has to singlehandedly deal with an entire community of zombies. This will be a real treat for those movie fanatics fancying a better time for themselves, time for some comedy, time for some laughs.
IMDb = 7.4/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 93%
16. Planet Terror, 2007
Planet Terror is a Horror/Thriller comedy movie by Robert Rodriguez. A dangerous government experiment unleashes a gas that turns an entire town into flesh-eating zombies. A group of survivors among the deadly zombies are desperate not to fall to them. For this, they must make their way to a helicopter to escape this scourge and the film made it with a perfect blend of horror, thrill, and comedy.
17. Safe, 1995
Safe is a Drama film by Todd Haynes, starring Julianne Moore. Carol White is a Southern Californian housewife who is ailing from an inexplicable disease. Her condition g0es bad as each day passes by and she is unable to find a cure for it. This movie resonates well with the outbreak condition of our world, so settle in for one good treat!
IMDb = 7.1/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 74%
18. Outbreak, 1995
This is a Thriller movie by Wolfgang Petersen. The movie tells the story of a deadly virus that was carried by a monkey host from the African rain forest. The film portraits a fictional California town as it is entirely in quarantine when it becomes ground zero for the Ebola-like outbreak. The virus starts infecting the entire population against which a handful of scientists struggle to find a cure.
IMDb = 7.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 86%
19. Contagion, 2011
Contagion is a Thriller/Drama film by Steven Soderbergh. The death of Beth Emhoff and her son leads to the discovery of a deadly virus. This leads to a worldwide pandemic as the US Centers for Disease Control struggles to curb its spread. The movie is front-loaded with dread before turning into a chilling sociological study of what everyday people would do during a pretty realistic seeming pandemic.
IMDb = 6.6/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 59%
20. Flu, 2013
This is a Drama/Sci-fi movie by Kim Sung-su. After a lethal, airborne virus infects the population of a South Korean city, the entire falls into chaos. In this film, the severely deadly strain of the virus H5N1 starts tearing through the city of Bundang, killing those who contract it within 36 hours. The population of nearly 1 million are in danger of the virus, which the movie further portrays how they deal with it.
IMDb = Rotten Tomatoes =
IMDb = 6.7/10 Rotten Tomatoes = 36%
The movies listed above are all a true masterpiece from its respective creators. In this time of an actual outbreak that we are witnessing, there’s no other way to save the world but by simply staying home on our couch and relaxing. The above are hand vetted picks for you, solely depending on movies rating, research, and personal choices. Stay home, keep boredom away with these movies, and stay safe. If we can pull ourselves back, we are saving mankind by breaking the chain!
