Coronavirus crisis: The scary movies to get you through self-isolation – PerthNow

As were all suddenly spending more time at home, when it comes to what to watch with our new-found time there are those of us who gravitate towards a wholesome, feel-good film to provide a temporary respite from coronavirus crisis. Some reach for the lightest and fluffiest of reality series, or want nothing more than a laugh-out-loud comedy. Then there are those who love nothing more than leaning into the doom and gloom by curling up with a good old-fashioned scary movie.

If you fall into the latter group, here are 10 films that fit the brief though you should perhaps avoid watching them if your COVID-19 anxiety is already at a high.

Oh, this isnt so bad. Its actually a romantic zombie comedy or rom-zom-com, if you like starring the lad from About a Boy. The skeletal Boneys are a bit scary but this is a bit of a romp. OK, you can watch this one.

Despite the pleasure of seeing Kevin Spacey die a painful death, this disaster flick about a small US town becoming infected with an Ebola-like virus thanks to a capuchin monkey called Betsy is a little too close to home. Outbreak focuses on how far governments might go to contain a deadly disease ... so avoid this if youre a little testy about booze limits or 30-minute haircuts.

If youre thinking we need to send Bruce Willis back in time to Wuhan province to stop coronavirus before it begins, Ive got bad news. According to director Terry Gilliam, it wont work. Not even crazy old Brad Pitt is so deluded to think it would. A dystopian classic that once seemed far-fetched is way too pessimistic to watch in 2020.

Brad Pitt sure does turn up in a lot of apocalyptic films. Here he plays former UN investigator Gerry Lane, who flits around the globe trying to stop a zombie pandemic. As Coles shoppers are attracted to family-sized packs of toilet paper, these undead freaks react to sound. A rare clever zombie movie that packs in cliffhangers, World War Z even has a happy ending Brad discovers the vaccine!

An absolute classic of the zombie film genre, and one of the first to show them as adrenaline-filled monsters that hurtle around mindlessly like someone spotting the last pack of Tim Tams at Woolies. Another zombie movie involving nefarious governments and an infection that begins with a damn monkey. The opening scene of Cillian Murphy staggering through a deserted London now doesnt look like fantasy and may be more off-putting than the fast zombies ... maybe avoid this till 28 days after were allowed out again.

More fast zombies, this time in South Korea in this seat-of-your pants thrill ride featuring a workaholic fund manager just trying to get his young daughter to her mothers place for her birthday. Sounds nice enough. Nope. Train to Busan quickly morphs into a brilliantly chaotic tale built around a viral pandemic that moves faster than a bullet train. Too brutal. Maybe see if Parasite is streaming instead.

Not even self-isolating in a cabin in the woods can save us? Eli Roths directorial debut has all the classic horror movie tropes. College students? Check. Flesh-eating virus? Check. Creepy hermits and townsfolk? Check and check. This grisly slasher flick is a bit too over-the-top and occasionally silly to cause too much anxiety.

George A. Romeros zombie apocalypse classic focuses on four folks who, to survive an America taken over by the undead, barricade themselves in a shopping mall. Come on! Thats the last place to hide. Try a pub, like in the brilliant zom-com Shaun of the Dead. Romeros blue-faced zombies are more comical than scary, and Dawn is more a satire of society gone mad than nerve-jangling horror.

Poor Gwyneth Paltrows character gets the ultimate punishment for having an affair on a work trip and becomes patient zero for a viral outbreak that shuts down Chicago. Cue: looting and random violence. Director Steven Soderberghs steely focus on the search for the cause and cure of the pandemic made Contagion seem like a dry take at the time, but now its chilling especially the epilogue where he reveals it all started with a bat and a pig in China. This one needs a warning sticker: Too real.

Oh, God no. Not this. Even before this crisis, why would you willingly inflict this on yourself? The Road is the stuff of nightmares, a depiction of a post-apocalyptic world where society hasnt so much broken down as ceased to ever exist. Cannibalism is rife and no one is safe in Aussie director John Hillcoats pitch-black adaptation of Cormac McCarthys PTSD-inducing novel. Go watch a few episodes of Bluey instead, I beseech you.

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Coronavirus crisis: The scary movies to get you through self-isolation - PerthNow