Review of Variola Vera

Variola Vera (1982)
9/10
More than scary ...
1 July 2002
This is really scary and shocking movie that deals with true events of smallpox epidemic that hits former Yugoslavia in 1972 (I was one year old and my parents still remember all this). Movie works excelent in building tense atmosphere from the first second - when you hear amazingly creepy score and see first scenes where a pilgrim buy a little "doomed" flute from a man infected with smallpox, to the moment when he get sick and spread desease that finally stuck in General hospital in Belgrade where main plot of the movie occurs. We see, death, fear, anarchy, people get crazy, army build quarantine ... the creepiest moments of the movie are showing infection (makeup are stunning) and suffering of patients and definitelly occurence of main infectologyst dressed in scary white suit which, in conjunction with amazingly simple and effective score give unbearable tension and unpleasant feelings (only remark I have is that he reveal himself at the end of the movie - and I think it would be better that we don't know any fact about him). It is only sad that we don't see any events that occurred outside hospital (many people was infected and died in the city and everywhere where infected pilgrim passed) and that main plot is stucked in hospital.

Anyway, one of the best and creepiest movies I ever seen with several moments that will stuck in your memory for a long time.
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