Thankfully, there’s no shortage of horror movies featuring terrifying infections or diseases. We’re not even three months into 2026, and already two Infection-based movies have been released, each with their own special twist (28 years later: Bone Temple And cold storage). So here are some of my personal favorite or particularly interesting fictional diseases featured in movies and TV shows, as well as their real-life inspirations.
1. the last of us
Now both a hit video game and an HBO TV series, the last of us Characterized by apocalypse induced by fungi. However, not just any fungus, but fungus that turns its victims into aggressive zombie-like creatures.
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Thankfully, fungi in general are selective about their hosts, and there is no chance that Cordyceps fungi will cross the species barrier and begin infecting humans, at least not anytime soon. Unfortunately, part of the show’s underlying premise is actually happening. Due to climate change, some fungi are beginning to adapt to warmer temperatures, and it’s possible that we are already starting to see new fungal diseases emerging in humans.
this year’s cold storageMeanwhile, it involves the more common but B-movie-mold-like fungus that zombifies (and explodes) both people and animals alike. It also stars Liam Neeson as the ultimate action hero.
2. 28 days/month/year later
The germ in this long-running series (hopefully the fifth is on the way) has an established name: the Rage Virus. Based on this, you would think this is a fictional story on rabies. But no, canonically, the Rage virus is a lab-made modified version of the Ebola virus, which is obviously horribly wrong.
Rage victims exhibit some of the symptoms of severe Ebola infection, such as vomiting blood and blood-red eyes (they are also, as the name indicates, incredibly, uncontrollably violent). It may stretch credulity to think that someone with these symptoms could run after uninfected people for very long in the same way that rabies-infected carriers do in these movies. Although these films, to their credit, didn’t treat the infected as zombies invincible to anything, the latest films also provide justification for how they have managed to survive even after 28 years.
3. rec/quarantine
Now if you want a real rabies villain, there’s the REC series, along with its lesser quality but still fun American remakes Quarantine 1 and 2.
The first films of both series feature the quarantine of an apartment complex over a mysterious outbreak that is turning residents into brutal zombies. At one point, a health official even said that the outbreak began with an infected dog, a very real carrier of rabies. However, without going into too many spoilers, the infection in these films ultimately differs dramatically from rabies in its own way.
Actual rabies infection can cause animals and humans to become aggressive toward others, although this is rarely the only symptom. Muscle twitching, confusion, and reflex fear of water are other common symptoms. And by the time these symptoms appear, death is almost 100% certain. Thankfully, pet and livestock vaccination programs have made rabies rare in much of the world, although human and dog cases still occur rarely in the US.
4. huts
Continuing on the zombie thread, a 2014 film huts. This fictional disease specifically turns pre-pubescent children into zombie-like infected, while also causing stomach flu in all grown-ups (hence the name of the film). Zombie-likeness aside, this is actually a very real characteristic of many foodborne infections. While most people will experience mild but limited gastrointestinal distress from norovirus or Salmonella Due to infection, young children (and those with weakened immune systems) are more susceptible to serious complications. These complications don’t usually involve zombification, but that’s movie magic for you.
5. bay
The 2000s and early 2010s were full of films attempting to capitalize on the found footage craze. Few people have attracted my attention so much bayReleased in 2012.
The antagonist tearing apart the fictional town of Claridge, Maryland is not a microbe, but a species of predatory isopod mutated by the release of toxins (including growth hormone) into the Chesapeake Bay by a shady chicken farm.
Isopods are a very real order of crustaceans. And the film version is based on simothoa exiguaAka the tongue eating louse. These isopods will cut off the fish’s tongue and begin serving as a replacement organ. Unlike the isopods of the film, which prove fatal to many unlucky infected humans, fish can often live for years C. exigua There are lice stuck in his mouth. Only a few isopod species are even parasitic, and the ones you’ll most likely encounter are harmless pill bugs, also known as roly polys.
6. contagion
of 2011 contagion It’s not an outwardly scary movie, but the disease causing the epidemic it depicts may be the scariest of all, as it is deliberately made as real as possible.
According to the film’s technical advisors, Meningoencephalitis Virus 1 (MEV-1) is modeled after Nipah virus, an emerging zoonotic disease found naturally in bats. In the film, MEV-1 initially reaches human populations through contact with pigs infected by bats, a real scenario that has happened with the Nipah outbreak.
Since its discovery in 1998, Nipah has continued to cause outbreaks even this year. The virus spreads most easily through contact with infected animals but can also spread directly between people. So far, at least, its outbreak has been generally limited (the largest outbreak to date involved about 300 people), but its case fatality rate is around 40% to 50%. And it is certainly possible that Nipah or similar viruses could someday evolve and lead to the next pandemic.
For something somewhat less realistic, there is a 1995 film based on the 1990s medical epidemic thriller outbreakWhich contains viruses like Ebola.
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