Horror film fans overlook ‘Virus’
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 9:40AM Jeremy Gatlin
Mass Communication major
It’s October again and Halloween is around the corner, which always gets me in the mood for horror movies.
A trip to the movie theater to see the latest horror movies, such as “My Soul to Take” or “Let Me In” is tempting, but the ticket prices can wreak havoc on your wallet.
Therefore, I recommend renting the 1999 horror movie “Virus” directed by John Bruno.
The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin and Donald Sutherland as members of a rag-tag tugboat crew who sail into the eye of a terrible storm.
In the storm, they discover an abandoned high-tech Russian research vessel.
Hoping to make a fortune off finding the ship, the crew boards it and discovers a lone female crew member who warns them about “intelligent lightning.”
The crew soon discovers that an alien life form has commandeered the ship’s computers and has targeted them as a virus that must be destroyed.
The events that follow after the crew makes its discovery appear to fall into the typical:
1. Dwindling of numbers by gruesome deaths
2. Arguing amongst the characters about greed
3. The final stand off
The movie wasn’t critically or financially successful, which would suggest it’s a run-of-the-mill horror film, according to IMDB.com.
However, what keeps this movie from being typical is the idea of computers turning against humans and never actually seeing the alien life form.
Instead of seeing the alien, we see its grotesque mechanical warriors made out of the crew and machinery.
In a very creepy scene, the main characters try to use a computer to get help and the alien life form communicates with them.
At one point, the alien prints words on the screen that read, “You are virus. You must die.”
This creepy scene leads to more bizarre scenes where the surviving characters discover their mechanized friends and have to fight them.
The special effects in these scenes, as well as in the climax, are impressive and add to the movie’s excitement.
The good pacing of the movie and the claustrophobic feel of the inside of the ship work together to ratchet up the suspense of the unfolding mystery of how, and if, the main characters are going to defeat the “intelligent lightning.”
“Virus” is an under-appreciated horror movie that was ahead of its time when it was released and deserves a viewing.
