Infection

(2004) ****

God how I love J-horror! Asian cinema is light years ahead of the West when it comes to knowing what’s truly scary. Infection will suck you in, chew you up, swish you around and spit you out. It’s gross, man, really, really gross.

Central Hospital is a dilapidated, understaffed, city hospital that is running low on supplies. The overworked staff is getting testy with one-another and patient care is being compromised. Adding to an already stressful situation, no one can seem to find the director. As this combination of problems coalesces, a mistake is made and a long-term patient is accidentally killed. With their jobs already hanging by a thread, the doctors and nurses involved conspire to cover up the real cause of the death. After all, he was a severe burn victim with no known family, who would know? As the staff is planning this cover up, paramedics arrive and leave a new patient despite being informed that there are no available hospital beds. This little development sets the film in motion, as this new patient appears to have the mother of all infections. Now, I’m not one to be grossed out by much. I’ve seen hundreds of horror movies, and I’m fairly unshockable. Hell, I eat my dinner while I’m watching these splatterfests, but the “infection” in question is so utterly disgusting; I almost tossed my cookies more than once. Apparently this infection liquefies the internal organs and causes its victim to ooze green, gelatinous mess all over the place. The attempt to call the CDC is thwarted by one dispassionate doctor who may or may not have overheard the cover-up being planned. He’s under the impression that they will achieve glory, money, and hefty grant funding if they’re able to identify the pathogen for this infection. Thus, through unspoken blackmail, the staff is forced to keep silent while the corpse (i.e., puddle of green ooze) is analyzed.

Things go from bad to worse as the various staff members begin to become infected. Although there are a few scares in this film, the true horror comes from seeing the infection itself and hearing the slurpy sounds it makes as its victims literally melt. As is common with J-horror, a number of twists are thrown in near the end and I’m not completely sure what happens, but it really doesn’t matter. Not for the squeamish, Infection packs a gross-factor wallop I haven’t seen in horror in a long time. Don’t watch with your girlfriend!