A film-lover’s lockdown exploration of the history of contagion as depicted in cinema and TV drama. By Richard Scheib.
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“I have had a headache all day. I am afraid of what will happen next…”
A Viewing Guide to the Pandemic is a film book like no other. It opens with the author’s first-hand account of the Covid-19 pandemic and life in lockdown. His sense of dread, and anxiety about his state of health, were experiences shared with millions of others across the world. For author Richard Scheib, already committed to writing a book about plagues and pandemics in popular culture, Covid-19 felt like a perverse twist of fate. Media depictions of deadly contagions had, to this point, been speculative and often off the mark; his book takes an in-depth look at what filmmakers imagined would happen and contrasts it with the reality.
International in scope, A Viewing Guide to the Pandemic examines films in a wide variety of genres, from the silent era to the present day. Black Death, Ebola, Mad Cow Disease, Bird Flu — it explores fictionalized accounts of plague and pestilence such as box-office hit Outbreak (1995), as well as documentary treatments of real-life incidents. Whether the threats depicted have a basis in reality — the biowarfare of the Cold War era, for instance — or are, like zombies and vampires, more fantastical, Scheib demonstrates how the fear of contagion has provided a wealth of inspiration for the big and small screen.
Covid and Me: Dispatches from Death’s Mailbox
PART ONE: THE ESSENTIALS OF THE PANDEMIC AND OUTBREAK FILM
Chapter 1: Earliest Treatments
Chapter 2: Biowarfare Agents and Threats
Chapter 3: The World in the Aftermath of a Pandemic
PART TWO: REAL WORLD PANDEMICS
Chapter 4: The Black Death
Chapter 5: Life after Ebola
Chapter 6: The Bird Flu and assorted other Outbreaks
Chapter 7: Assorted other Pandemics
PART THREE: PANDEMICS OF A MORE OUTLANDISH NATURE
Chapter 8: The Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 9: Vampirism as Pandemic
Chapter 10: Mass Insanity Outbreaks
Chapter 11: More Exotic Outbreaks
PART FOUR: THE ERA OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Chapter 12: Life During Lockdown: The Films of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Chapter 13: Tales from Covid Lockdown
Chapter 14: The World in the Aftermath of a Pandemic Part II: Covid Edition
Chapter 15: Works about other Pandemics
Thank yous
Index
Title: A VIEWING GUIDE TO THE PANDEMIC
Subtitle: Depictions of Plague and Pandemic on Film and TV Culture and Nigel Kneale’s ATV TV Series
Author: Richard Scheib
ISBN: 978-1-915316-39-4
Street Date: April 3, 2025
Category: Film & TV, Horror
Retail Price: UK £18.99 / US $23.95
Binding: Paperback
Size: 240mm x 170mm
Pages: 218
Illos: 43 B&W posters and film stills
As the trade paperback, except this special NO-ISBN hardback is exclusive to this website. Because it carries No ISBN number, this edition of the book is off the grid in as much as it doesn’t appear on any database, in any library, cannot be ordered through mainstream bookshops or online retailers.
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