Viral (2016)

Viral: Directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman. With Sofia Black-D’Elia, Lio Tipton, Travis Tope, Michael Kelly. Following the outbreak of a virus that wipes out the majority of the human population, a young woman documents her family’s new life in quarantine and tries to protect her infected sister.

“A virus breaks out causing the infected to lose their faculties and attack the healthy. In a small American town two sisters try to survive on their own when their parents are locked outside the quarantine zone.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis film starts off really well. The two female leads are excellent, with strong engrossing characters. Watching them live their ordinary lives is great viewing. The relationship between the two sisters, one who is sexually active and the other not, is played out with great skill. As things start to head south they deal with the situation as best they can.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is where my praise for the movie ends. You can actually hit the pause button and see the exact second where some company executive taps the director on the shoulder and says u0026quot;hey, bud, you remember this is a Sci-fi right?u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe director and writers obviously werenu0026#39;t up for this. I think they probably asked the guy from the local comic book store for advice. As all the hard work and investment in the characters is thrown away to stick some ridiculous tentacles in – then try and pass it off with some very flaky biology.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI am a big fan of sci-fi, especially post apocalyptic stories. This fails to deliver on both accounts. Despite my tastes I would rather this had panned out as a coming of age movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWatch it for the characters, then turn it off to avoid the laughable appearance of the actual virus.”