Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Contagion

Hello everyone!

It's that time again...time for a new Fright Night Friday movie review! This week's review comes from my good friend, TJ! He's an awesome writer and fellow Harry Potter maniac! ;) He has a great blog showcasing his writing over at http://tjsshortstories.blogspot.com/ Be sure to check it out! On another note, I hope everyone had a wonderful first day of Fall! Now time for the review!

Contagion (2011)

Walking into the theatre to watch Contagion, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Based on its title, I could guess what the film was about. My prediction was that it would be about some sort of disease or the like having to be contained in an area in order to prevent it from being spread. How right I was.

The film follows a group of characters with various stories about how a virus breaks out after a woman catches it during a visit to Hong Kong. When she returns to the US, she transmits the virus to several people, including her son. Early on, both she and her son succumb to the virus, putting her husband (played by Matt Damon) at risk for catching the disease. However as time goes on, doctors discover that the husband has an immunity to the disease and allows him to go home with his daughter from a previous marriage, however, she must be contained because she is at risk for catching the virus (she never does).

Meanwhile, Dr. Ellis Cheever (played by Laurence Fishburne) of the CDC express fears that the disease is a bioweapon of some sort intended to cause terror of the Thanksgiving weekend (when the woman who initially carried the virus returned home). Cheever decides to send Dr. Erin Mears (played by Kate Winslet), who is an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, to Minneapolis where the virus began breaking out to begin investigating the virus and traceback. Unfortunately, Mears becomes infected with the disease while staying at her hotel, rapidly deteriorates in health and eventually succumbs to the virus.

Among all of this, a freelance journalist, Alan Krumwiede (played by Jude Law), posts videos on his blog claiming that he recovered from the virus by using a cure based on forsythia. As a result, panicked people attempt to obtain forsythia by overwhelming pharmacies thus accelerating the spread of the virus by congregated infected and healthy people. It eventually comes to light that Krumwiede was never sick, but was attempting to boost demand on behalf of investors that produce and distribute the treatment.

A World Heath Organization epidemiologist, Dr. Leonora Orantes (played by Marion Cotillard), travels to Hong Kong to find out where the virus originated. While there, she is kidnapped by epidemiologist Sun Feng (played by Chin Han) who uses her as leverage to obtain the first vaccines for his village. Once the vaccines arrive, Orantes is exchanged for some vaccines that turn out to be placebos. Upon realizing that the villagers were fooled, Orantes rushes back to the village to inform the people.

Eventually, Dr. Ally Hextall finds a possible potential vaccine using a live version of the virus. Following the example of other cure finders, Dr. Hextall injects herself with the vaccine and visits her father in the hospital, exposing herself to the virus in the process. The vaccine works and the production of it is ramped up and the CDC begins awarding vaccinations using a random lottery based on birth dates.

The film ends showing how the virus started and began its spread. In Minneapolis, a bulldozer had knocked over a palm tree that had bats nesting in it, carrying the virus. One of the bats that flies out lands on a banana tree, eating a chunk of a banana, transmitting the virus into the banana. Having no tree to go back to, it flies to a hog building and drops the banana into a pigsty and one of the pigs eats the banana, giving the pig the virus. The pig is sold and slaughtered and is shown being prepared in the casino where Beth Emhoff (the woman who was first infected) was in. However, after preparing the pig, the chef did not was his hands and shook hands with Beth, transmitting the virus to her and beginning the chain of events throughout the movie.

Overall, the film was well done. The acting was good and the storyline was easy to follow. The problem I had with the film was that it had too many similarities to the 1995 film "Outbreak" and therefore was very predictable. I kind of expected almost everything that occurred in the movie, at least the events relating to the virus spreading. However, don't let that get you down, the film is well done and is great for anyone who is interested in anything biology related. I rate this movie 3 skulls!

Thank you for the great review, TJ! I've been wanting to see this, it sounds good! I'll have to rent it when it comes to DVD!

Remember, if there is a movie that you would like to review, we would love to feature it! It can be an old or new movie and it can be a movie that someone else has reviewed. We need our readers to submit reviews! :) Have a great weekend!

Happy Hauntings!