- Pop! Pour! Review
Are There Too Many COVID Movies?
Updated: Jan 17
By Matt Chieco
Global pandemics have always been the subject for many films, but now they are hitting too close to home. 2020 was very hard on all of us. With COVID-19 at the forefront, Hollywood had a very difficult decision to make. Do they incorporate the pandemic or pretend like it doesn’t exist.
Many television shows tackled COVID rather than try to hide it. Yet in the film world a small trend began to happen. While productions were ramping up, filmmakers took the opportunity they had in quarantine and created new movie ideas. Many of these ideas revolving around the pandemic, and around mid 2020, theses movies were finally being released.
The question on my mind is, when can I stop seeing COVID everywhere I turn? It’s in the news, it’s in my personal life and for a lot of people movies are an escape from reality. Now there are exceptions to all of that of course, but there is only so much pandemic related content a person (me) can take.
The real deciding factor is simple, does the audience want it. While I think everyone would love to wish COVID-19 away, people are always hungry for content and these movies are filling streaming platforms ever growing libraries. At the time of writing there have been seven movies released surrounding the subject of COVID, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm on Prime Video, Coastal Elites on HBO Max, Host on Shudder, Corona: Fear Is a Virus, Corona Zombies, Songbird on PVOD, and on January 14th HBO Max released Locked Down, staring Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
I don’t think movies about COVID-19 are bursting the creative bubble, but if the people want it they get it (because the studios want money). Hopefully there comes a day when the only pandemic movies are just documentaries and science-fiction.
Locked Down is currently streaming on HBO Max.