If there’s one thing that perfectly reflects the state of our times, it is the Over-The-Top entertainment medium, OTT for short.
As the world is in the grip of panic and pandemonium in the wake of the rapidly-spreading scourge of Coronavirus, there is a noticeable increase in audience interest in movies that center on similar situations. Of course, the Coronavirus pandemic is real and present danger, and the movies are obviously fiction, but the increased interest gives us a clear indication of what is uppermost in people’s minds today. And right now it is ‘Virus’, with a capital V.
The 1995 movie ‘Outbreak’ became the fourth most popular movie on Netflix USA this week, rising in popularity in tandem with the rise in Coronavirus cases. The movie, directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Dustin Hoffman and Cuba Gooding Jr, is about a killer virus that is spreading rapidly in California, while an army virologist races against time to stop its deadly march.
Another movie that has seen a surge in popularity and interest is the 2011 flick, ‘Contagion’, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Matt Damon and Kate Winslet. The movie, directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns, is about a pandemic that threatens to wipe out humanity, the untold panic it creates in the population and the scientists’ mad rush to develop a vaccine for the virus before it’s too late.
Contagion is so chillingly real to what’s happening in the world today that it feels surreal to watch it unfold on screen. The pandemic, the panic, the pandemonium is all too real, the parallels are startling, and the plot, a fitting sign of our times.
Since Contagion is not available on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video or Hulu in the USA, it has seen an astonishing number of downloads from piracy apps. The number of downloads from Torrents has spiked considerably between January and March. Contagion is also #2 on iTunes right now.
Contagion is available on Amazon Prime Video in India.
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