Viral is a 2016 American Sci-Fi Horror film directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost.
The film follows teenage sisters Emma (Sofia Black-D'Elia) and Stacey (Lio Tipton), two newcomers to a California suburb who are struggling with their parents' strained relationship. Things quickly get worse when an outbreak of a strange parasitic virius happens in the area, cutting the girls off from their parents and forcing them to struggle to survive.
Not to be confused with the upcoming thriller film of the same name directed by and starring Blair Underwood.
Tropes:
- Bittersweet Ending: Stacey is dead, but Emma and Evan survived the infection and the subsequent bombing, implying the parasites are dead. When fleeing the town, Emma finds that her parents are well too, and waiting for her in Washington, on her uncle's house.
- Blood from the Mouth: The worm flu's first symtom is victims spitting blood up.
- Body Horror: When a person is fully infected, the parasitic worms are seen gruesomely protruding from their ears, clicking while they sense uninfected nearby to attack.
- Catapult Nightmare: Emma has dreams Stacey's still infected, with worm parasites sprouting from every orifice in her face, then comes awake by sitting bolt upright while she gasps.
- Emergency Authority: It's announced that to handle the worm flu crisis, US President Barack Obama has declared martial law, with all law enforcement and emergency personell being federalized. Military helicopters drop supplies off, while soldiers wearing hazmat suits haul away any infected people identified, while preventing others from leaving areas of infection (by deadly force if necessary). Soldiers begin patrolling the streets and declare that people must stay in their homes, with it being a felony to harbor anyone infected. Later they are also indicated to be firebombing sites so the infection is stopped. Also, the governor of California orders that people evacuate the region. This is portrayed as harsh, but probably necessary.
- Eye Scream: A particular well known scene in the movie has the parasites walking between Stacey's eyes and skin.
- Hope Spot: After an impromptu surgery on Stacey, Emma and Evan believe they're on the clear to flee the town. But it turns out the parasite is already taking over Stacey, so she asks for them to end her.
- Horror Hunger: The infection will leave the infected person with an unbearable hunger and have them eating non-stop is an early sign of the infection. In later stages, they'll start trying to eat other people.
- Interrupted Intimacy:
- Stacey interrupts her boyfriend having sex with another girl at a party, to her rage.
- Later she tells her sister Emma she'd walked in on their dad with one of his grad students.
- Mercy Kill: Emma is forced to do this to Stacey after they realized the surgery didn't stop the parasites already taking over her brain. She is forced to shoot her sister before she completely loses herself to the parasite.
- Non-Indicative Title: Despite the title of the movie being "Viral", there's no virus involved in the plot. The sickness is caused by a parasite.
- Parasite Zombie: The infected are homicidally violent, cannibalistic and controlled by parasitic worms.
- The Plague: The worm flu that spreads with bodily fluids, which results in people turning into parasite zombies.
- Roadside Surgery: Afraid of what might happen to the infected Stacey, Evan and Emma devise a plan to surgically remove whatever is inside the growth in her nape. Midway through the surgery, a knocked out Stacey wakes up and rips the parasite out of her neck herself with her bare hands.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Stacey is cool, reckless, carefree and bold. Her sister Emma is reserved, obedient, responsible and cautious.
- Wild Teen Party: Stacey and Emma unwisely go to one during the worm flu outbreak. There are lots of teens drinking, carousing, and wildly dancing to loud music before the party ends as an infected boy starts attacking partygoers.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The worm flu that spreads rapidly across the US results in people turning into parasite zombies, with people having to quarantine and flee the infected.
