Viral (2016)

Film review #662

Director: Ariel Schulman; Henry Joost

SYNOPSIS: When a parasitic infection starts to spread in a suburb, the entire town is quarantined, and Stacey and Emma, two sisters, are caught within while their parents are out of town. As people they know are taken over by the parasite, which turns them into aggressive , ravenous monsters, the survivors must find a way to survive…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Viral is a 2016 sci-fi horror film. Stacey and Emma are Sisters that move to a Californian suburb with their parents. When an outbreak of ‘worm flu’ hits the area, the Sisters are trapped in the quarantine zone, while their parents are away, and must find a way to survive as their neighbours are infected and turn into ravenous, aggressive monsters. Following the typical script of a viral/infected outbreak, the two Sisters must try and survive amidst a host of typical teenage problems. While a low-budget film with not much in the way of flashy setups or large-scale events, the film at least has a coherent narrative focusing on the two sisters, and hinging everything around that. The rest of the teen drama stuff rarely hits home, and lacks a similar investment.

The premise of the film is revealed quite clearly, although perhaps a bit on the nose that Emma and Stacey’s Father is a biology teacher who just so happens to be an expert in parasitic infections. While the effects are mostly low key, I found the gore and bodily infections very visceral and disturbing; which is undoubtedly what is intended. While the dynamic between the two sisters drives the story along, other plot elements lag behind, and other characters seem to hang about doing very typical things that don’t distinguish them. The film loses its way towards the ending, and I don’t think had any real idea what to do to conclude it, so it just…doesn’t.

While Viral is for the most part a very typical outbreak horror film, it does provide some entertainment at its core, and some nasty effects to make its atmosphere stick. Outside of that though, there’s not much that is memorable or interesting amidst the many other films like it.