Epidemic Films to Die for

Epidemic cinema remains an enduring genre of contemporary film, ranging from medical dramas to post-apocalyptic thrillers. Using a vast filmography, Zaniello not only details the incredible variety of epidemics and their role in popular culture, but also demonstrates how epidemics, as a rule, have been confronted without proper preparation or deployment of resources in different forms of media. Therefore, Epidemic Films to Die For is the first and the only book that extensively analyzes the history and deployment of films and TV series towards a chronicle of epidemic films. In addition to providing an overview of how widespread disease and illness have been historically depicted via film and media, this book skillfully contextualizes the contemporary ongoing moment in which filmmakers and producers grapple with the cultural imaginary surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tom Zaniello is Professor Emeritus, having taught film and cultural studies, and directed the Honors Program at Northern Kentucky University, USA. He has been active as a film programmer for the Hill Center in Washington DC and for the London and North West (Liverpool) Labour Film Festivals. He recently published California's Lamson Murder Mystery (2016), the story of the wrongful conviction of a Hollywood screenwriter for murder, along with Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films about Labor, 2nd ed. (2003) and The Cinema of Globalization (2007).

List of Figures Introduction: Panic in the Streets 1. The Panther Behind Bars: Oliver Sacks and Parkinson's 2. The Heroic Doctors of the Pre-Apocalypse 3. Hollywood in the Polio Years: Playgrounds Without Children 4. A Diabolical Abecedary of Viruses 5. Plagues ... Black, Red, Yellow, and White 6. Bacteria in Lingua Latina 7. Fungal Nightmares, Pollen Poisoning, and Other Botanical Horrors 8. Creepy Crawlers and Other Things that Get Under Your Skin 9. HIV/AIDS and STDs: The Person is Not the Disease 10. OxyContin and the Opioids: A 10 on the Pain Scale 11. The Covid-19 Pandemic: We Told You So 12. Non-Pathogenic Epidemics: The Politics of Race, Class, and Caste 13. Androids and The Grey Man 14. Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) and The Human Mouse 15. Zombies R Us, Vampires R You 16. Imaginary and Idiopathic Viruses: As If There Weren't Enough Real Ones 17. Alien Sex and the Midwich Cuckoos 18. Standstill: A New (Post-Covid-19) Structure of Feeling Afterword: Forever Epidemics Appendix: Epidemic Cinema Database Bibliography Typological Index of Epidemic Films Acknowledgements