Are We Living in a Disaster Movie?: How Genre Conventions Predict the Plot of the Covid-19 Pandemic - Paperback

by Brian A. Shaer (Author)

Some periods of history contain so many compounded disasters they seem to be inspired by disaster movies. In the early 2020s, the Covid-19 pandemic upended the world and thrust populations into a state of uncertainty and fear--as seen in movies like Outbreak, The Towering Inferno or Armageddon. Birthed from the author's original research on disaster movies, this book argues that the life cycle of Covid closely parallels various apocalyptic films, from the personas of the main players to the strike of the cataclysm itself. To view the Covid pandemic through the language of disaster movies, the book identifies those that mirror (predict!) each stage of the Covid pandemic, analyzing the similarities between the films and real-life events. A filmography of the featured disaster movies concludes the book.

Author Biography

Brian A. Shaer studied communications at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications and earned a master's degree in cinema studies from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He lives in South Florida.