Infection: ‘Cooties’ Virus
Seen in: Cooties (2014)
Type: Mutated virus, transmitted via scratches and bites from an infected person
Original Source: Tainted chicken nuggets
Cooties is a comedy horror focused on the survival efforts of a group of elementary school teachers after their school becomes overrun by murderous children. The infection shown is similar to both the 28 Days Later rage virus and the enhanced rabies shown in the Quarantine films. The infected have the same single minded determination to attack as well as a level of malicious intelligence to take additional measures to secure their victims.
Over the course of the film, there are a few separate infection sites with most of these being shown in news footage near the end. Each of these is the result of a delivery of the tainted nuggets from the Fort Chicken factory. One of the scenes shows a lot of these blotchy nuggets scattered around so there’s no way to really determine if the other sites began with a single individual. Fortunately, the Fort Chicken Elementary, where most of the action takes place, only seemed to receive one bad nugget. The unfortunate recipient of this polluted poultry is Shelley, who is shown in close up eating the pus spewing meat. The pus that comes out is thick and black and it’s a little confusing that it’s not immediately spat out. School dinners aren’t the tastiest things on earth but if they’re so bad a student doesn’t realise they’re eating rotten food, something needs to change.
2014 SpectreVision
The next time we see Shelley is meant to be the next day and by this point she has begun displaying symptoms. While they start off relatively benign, that changes when one of her pigtails is pulled and tears off. Shelley attacks a kid called Patriot and then, slightly later on, scratches his friend Dink. After Dink is infected, he turns feral fairly rapidly and begins scratching everyone he can. These are the only infections that are shown in a way that makes it possible to confirm who caused each infection. It seems unlikely that Dink caused everyone in the playground turn, if the other students changed as quickly as he did they probably had a chance to scratch or bite someone. One infection is shown later on after the initial destruction, where a boy turns his baby brother in a throwaway scene but it doesn’t really contribute to the larger spread.
In terms of symptoms, Shelley is initially shown with laboured breathing and a few blisters on her face. The blisters get more numerous as the film goes on. There are no other early signs as most of the infected turn violent quite quickly however an autopsy conducted in the film states that the children are largely brain dead with only basic functions. The scene where Shelley’s hair is ripped out, still attached to a chunk of skin suggests there may be some necrosis happening as well.
2014 SpectreVision
Even though it’s said the children only have simple brain function allowing for movement, a few of them do demonstrate an awareness similar to the murderous intelligence displayed by Don, the first infectee of the 28 Weeks Later outbreak. It’s primarily seen in the first three infectees. When Shelley attacks Dink, she is in the process of digging a hole under the playground fence. Patriot’s first act when he changes is to destroy all the phones in the school and later he also cuts out the power. Dink spreads the virus as much as possible in what seems like a deliberate act and he also lets in the other children after the teachers have barricaded the building. It seems like the awareness is limited to actions that will help secure food and spread the virus, giving it an almost alive quality as it seeks to propagate itself.
Outside of these actions, the infected occasionally seem to switch off and become unresponsive. Shelley’s initial attacks are only when prompted, before that she is glassy eyed and almost trance like. She displays this behaviour again while standing on the other side of a window from a teacher and making no move to attack until startled by noise.
While it’s not a particularly pleasant disease, it’s far from being the worst out there for both the infected and the survivors. A key feature of the virus is that it only changes prepubescent individuals. Anyone who has started puberty just gets temporary stomach flu symptoms like vomiting and is back to normal within a few hours. In addition, while the infected show similar aggressive drives as those in 28 Days Later and Quarantine, they are still only as strong as a child and outside of their primary swarm offensive, they can be dispatched quite easily one on one. A few are shown as being slightly more resilient (Patriot loses a chunk of his jaw at one point and seems unphased) but its less like they’re tougher to kill and more like they just don’t care if they get hurt.
Transmission: B+
Curability: D
Death Rate: C
Horror Factor: C+
Biohazard Level
