Our top five epidemic thrillers Be the first to comment 17 October 2011

This week marks the UAE release of hit thriller Contagion, starring Matt Damon and Jude Law. In celebration, we present our favourite paranoia-inducing epidemic movies

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Starring: Judith O’Dea, Duane Jones, Karl Hardman, Keith Wayne
With its radical rewriting of a genre in which good had always triumphed over evil, George Romero’s first feature shattered many of the traditional conventions of horror and paved the way for the subversive visions of many future directors. The film’s opening scene immediately signals its own subversiveness. In broad daylight, a brother and sister visit their father’s grave; seeing a tall man lumbering towards them, Johnny tries to frighten Barbara with a daft Boris Karloff impersonation; suddenly the figure lurches forward and kills him.

Together with a small group of survivors, Barbara holes up in a nearby farmhouse, besieged by an ever-swelling tide of flesh-eating zombies. Trapped, they fight for their lives, but nothing works out as it should; whenever it seems there might be a glimmer of hope, Romero cruelly reverses our expectations. The nihilistic ending, in particular, has to be seen to be believed. NF
Paranoia rating: 4/5