I watched Viral because Viral promised me an apocalypse by infection with the possibility of zombies. While their parents are not home, the government quarantines a neighborhood, and two sisters must fend for themselves and deal with the growing threat of infection.
When I realized that America’s Next Top Model Analeigh Tipton played one of the sisters, I almost ran because I hated the first movie that I saw Tipton in, Two Night Stand. Tipton actually does an admirable job in Viral and seems to be steadily growing as an actor. I stayed because of the promise of apocalypse. The other sister looked vaguely familiar to me so I looked her up on imdb while watching Viral. She was the sister in Bekmambetov’s Ben-Hur. Netflix’s House of Cards’ Michael Kelly plays the father, and he is a solid actor, but does not get enough screen time.
Viral is a strong mediocre movie, which is unsurprising since Viral never appeared in theaters. Viral’s weakness is that it is intensely derivative even though the actual scene execution is well done. Viral’s infected reminded me of the vampires from The Strain: the way that the virus is transmitted, the infected communicate with each other and gather. The teenagers partying when they should be at home and quarantined reminded me of the CW show Contagion. One confrontation scene reminded me of an iconic scene between the Alien and Sigourney Weaver in Alien 3.
I know that teenagers are supposed to be stupid, but they are SO stupid in Viral. If I saw a YouTube video about how someone acts when they are infected, I would not run up to my friend who is showing the same symptoms. They do not put the chain on the door-to be fair, that would not make much of a difference, but try, people! There are infected trying to bust in! Don’t take off your mask unless you are about to put on a helmet with a face shield. Don’t hold someone’s hand if you just saw that person rip off someone’s limb. I need my characters to be just slightly smarter. Also don’t think that I didn’t notice that all the black people died first and Obama declaring martial law. We’re back to old school horror movie rules.
What distinguishes Viral from other mediocre movies is the infection as a metaphor for victims of abuse, including date rape. A formerly confident and bold character gets infected, keeps showering, initially keeps it a secret, changes attitude and dresses completely differently. Another character can openly deal with a stepfather’s abuse once the stepfather gets infected.
Viral is basically a coming of age contagion movie that lacks original concepts, but is emotionally resonant. Viral is not must see viewing, and you may find it too annoying if you can’t stand stupid teenagers, but it isn’t the worst entry in the contagion/zombie genre.