The recent review by Pappas et al. of infectious diseases as depicted in the movies was fascinating, but it is obvious that Hollywood is in urgent need of some fresh ideas for such cinema. The colorful language of our specialty and the variety of deadly or disgusting real-life pathogens could make for cinematic thrillers of almost any genre. I offer some examples with suggested titles.
The soft-tissue virulence of “flesh-eating” group A streptococci is truly frightening to anyone who has witnessed the full-blown toxic syndrome. When they do get around to making the movie, it might be titled “Eschar Wars—Flesh-Eating Strep Unchained!” Another scary skin flick might be "Creeping Eruption—It Will Make Your Skin Crawl!"
Worms could be cast as repulsive beasts of the cinema. “To Helminth and Back!” might be the title of a movie about battling and surviving Strongyloides hyperinfection. The gastrointestinal tract would be a favored location for the wormy thriller “From the Depths of the Bowels Comes—Attack of the 30-Foot Tapeworm!” Even the lowly pinworm would make you squirm in your seat—in fact, it will do it for you! The eyeworm and tongueworm are creepy crawlers that could make the victim's life a living helminth.
The “Crypt Trilogy” could be 3 films. The first, “The Crypt Abscess,” might feature a foolhardy venture into the foul lair of the dreaded vancomycin-eating Enterococcus. Not many movie-goers would have the guts to experience Number 2: “Cryptosporidium: Loose in Milwaukee!” The final film would be “Crypto: Curse of the Mummy's Yeast Infection”, the amazing true story of archaeologists stricken with cryptococci released during the unwrapping of ancient mummies.
In the film “Deep Space Infection”, plucky astronauts would disinfect satellite abscesses and dodge asteroid bodies. Unspeakable horrors also lurk in our inner body spaces, as might be seen in “Ozena—Enter the Nare if You Dare!” Another film could be “Out of the Jaws of the Hounds from Hell Comes—The Dysgonic Fermenter!” seeking hapless, spleenless victims.
The blockbuster thriller "Thoracic Park" would feature ferocious Pneumococcusaurs, as well as galloping consumption by TB Rex and its berserk cousin, the Battey Bacillusaur.
For the casting of spy or crime thrillers, the field of infectious diseases offers both felons and special agents, such as the Eaton and Norwalk agents. One film could be “The Yellow Peril”, in which a viral agent code-named “B” joins forces with a shadowy coconspirator, the Delta agent, to cause an international outbreak of fulminant hepatitis. One possible crime thriller might be called “Murder Most Foul”, in which a mad microbiologist creates ineradicable, multiple-drug—resistant anaerobes that he injects into unwilling experimental subjects.
The ongoing war against emerging pathogens, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, is a real-time documentary of an unfinished saga starring public health workers, infectious diseases specialists, microbiologists, and research scientists. Most of us are bit players in the trenches, but we all have a role in contributing to a happy ending.