Here’s our expert’s picks for epidemic films during coronavirus social distancing

Hmm … no sporting events, no school, no concerts or ballets, no big gatherings. COVID-19 even has sizable book clubs and wine-tasting groups trembling. We’re all going to have a pretty solitary four weeks (or more) to contemplate computer screens, televisions, home libraries and our navels.

Luckily, we have mass media. If the disease gets you down, take revenge via movies where humanity whips disease. Watch everything in this alphabetical roster, and you’ll feel teary, cheery, philosophical and confident. Nature won’t send anything we can’t adapt to or subdue.

I’ve left out famous blockbusters from “The Ten Commandments” (10 biblical plagues!) to “World War Z,” plus familiar series: “Dracula,” “Resident Evil,” George Romero’s “Dead” cycle, etc. Instead, I’ve picked a dozen pictures you may have overlooked or forgotten. Any list of epidemic-themed outings that offers alien spawn, Monty Python, Ingmar Bergman and human-sized cockroaches contains at least one winner for everybody.

“Children of Men” (2006) — Before Alfonso Cuarón won two Oscars for “Gravity” and two more for “Roma,” he directed this version of P.D. James’ novel about a world where women have become infertile — except for one, whose upcoming baby arouses activists on every side. Clive Owen gets a rare heroic role as the man coaxed into transporting her to a sanctuary at sea; the film rightly earned Oscar nominations for screenplay, editing and cinematography.

“Contagion” (2011)/”Outbreak” (1995) — Two “howdunits,” both with starry casts and Oscar-nominated directors, show researchers tracking diseases to their sources and seeking cures. Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Laurence Fishburne join director Steven Soderbergh in the first, about the Centers for Disease Control; Morgan Freeman, Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo work for director Wolfgang Petersen in the second, where the protagonists are Army doctors.

“Daybreakers” (2009) — This underrated Australian import remains one of my favorite vampire tales. Brothers Michael and Peter Spierig wrote and directed this piece about a future where 95 percent of us have become vampires. Society has coped, but the blood supply has dwindled, and vampires who don’t get enough of it turn into feral monsters. Ethan Hawke plays a doctor seeking a cure, Willem Dafoe a vampire who helps him, Sam Neill a shady businessman.

“The Last Man on Earth” (1964)/”I Am Legend” (2007) — Both of these (and the less interesting “The Omega Man”) adapt Richard Matheson’s novel “I Am Legend,” about the last man on Earth who hasn’t become a zombie/vampire. As he kills the others, he experiments on his blood to see if his immunity might lead to a cure. The Will Smith version from 2007 has better special effects, but the low-budget Vincent Price interpretation gets closer to the heart of the book.

“Mimic” (1997) — Long before his Academy Awards for “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Shape of Water,” writer-director Guillermo del Toro made this oddity about a researcher who genetically creates an insect to wipe out cockroaches carrying a virulent disease. Uh oh! Her intervention produces a race of enormous superbugs who can almost pass themselves off as human. The cast includes Oscar-winners Mira Sorvino and F. Murray Abraham, plus Jeremy Northam.

“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975) — “Bring out your dead!” The sequence in which Eric Idle collects plague victims (“I’m not dead yet!”) is one of two dozen laugh-out-loud interludes in the funniest movie of the 1970s, a takedown of the King Arthur legend. (I sat through this twice in succession the first time I saw it to memorize the lines.) You should also look for the musical theater adaptation, “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” which keeps most of the funny bits.

“The Seventh Seal” (1957) — Pay tribute to the great actor Max Von Sydow, who died two weeks ago, with this Bergman-directed movie set during an outbreak of the Black Plague. He plays a medieval knight who, struggling with questions about life and the existence of God, plays a game of chess with Death. This has been parodied by everyone from Woody Allen to Monty Python, but it remains a somberly beautiful movie. Not a lot of laughs, though.

“12 Monkeys” (1995) — I’ve watched this twice and, frankly, don’t get all of it — often the case with director Terry Gilliam. But I like it, though the short film on which it’s loosely based (Chris Marker’s “La Jetée”) works better. A convict (Bruce Willis) from a future decimated by a man-made virus goes back in time to stop its creator, who may be a zillionaire’s loony terrorist son (Brad Pitt, eye-rolling in the way that begs for an Oscar nomination and, in this case, got one).

“28 Days Later” (2002) — Director Danny Boyle, who went on to “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Yesterday,” cut his teeth on creepy movies. “28 Days Later” had actors little-known at the time – Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson — and introduced the idea of zombies who moved with relentless speed and ferocity. The lesser sequel ”28 Weeks Later,” directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, continued the story of humans trying to create a safe zone in London.

“Village of the Damned” (1960) — The spookiest film I saw on late-night TV as a middle-schooler was this faithful adaptation of John Wyndham’s novel “The Midwich Cuckoos.” After a blackout where everyone in a village goes to sleep, the women give simultaneous birth to dozens of children who think with one mind and control human behavior. Can a planet-wide infestation by alien seed be stopped? Director John Carpenter’s remake from 1995 may safely be ignored.

This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.

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This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 6:46 AM.