Rabies in popular culture

Rabies has been the main plot device or a significant theme in many fictional works. Due to the long history of the virus as well as its neurotropic nature, rabies has been a potent symbol of madness, irrationalism, or an unstoppable plague in numerous fictional works, in many genres.^[1][2][3][4] Many notable examples are listed below.

Examples

In films

(Chronological, then alphabetical within years)

• Rabies (1958 film), a film by Ingmar Bergman
• In the classic film Rage (1966) starring Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens, a doctor in rural Mexico is infected with rabies and desperately struggles to return to civilization and seek treatment. A major scene in the film shows a rabid man exhibiting symptoms being restrained by locals.
• I Drink Your Blood (1970; also known as Hydro-Phobia) is a cult horror film about a gang of Satanic hippies who get infected with rabies.
• In the movie The Crazies, a small town in Iowa is infected with a biochemically modified form of the Rhabdoviridae family released accidentally by the United States Army. However, in the movie, the RNA virus begins as a water-borne pathogen and there is speculation that the virus may have mutated into an air-borne pathogen.
• In the horror film Rabid (1977) starring Marilyn Chambers, a critically injured woman receives plastic surgery that treats some of her intact tissue is treated to become morphogenetically neutral, in hopes that tissue grafts to fire-damaged areas of her body will differentiate and replace the damaged skin and organs. Instead, the woman becomes a parasitic monster whose victims transform into rabid zombies whose bites spread the disease.
• Paris Trout (1991), a drama film directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal. Set in 1940s rural Georgia, the film begins with a young girl being bitten by a rabid fox.
• In 28 Days Later (2002), a horror film set in post-apocalyptic Britain, an artificial virus called "Rage" causes humans to become frenzied and uncontrollably aggressive. The virus exhibits similar features to rabies, with discoloration of the eye, unpredictable behavior, the urge to bite, and the spread of the virus through saliva. While the behavior of the infected characters in the film was modeled after the effects of advanced rabies in humans^[5] the comic book 28 Days Later: The Aftermath states that the virus is, in fact, a carrier of ebola mixed with a calming agent that went rogue.
• [●REC] (2007), is a zombie horror film in which an apartment building is quarantined after the breakout of an unknown virus (a strain of rabies).
• In Quarantine (2008), a Hollywood remake of Spanish horror movie, REC about a mutated variation of rabies, an apartment building is quarantined after an outbreak of an unknown virus. One resident of the building, a veterinarian, suspects it is a case of rabies.^[6]
• In the animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), based on Roald Dahl's 1970 famous children's novel of the same name, Spitz the beagle is shown to have rabies.
• In Marmaduke (2010), the character Chupadogra (Buster) (voiced by Sam Elliott) was believed to have rabies and ate owner, however later in the film, it is false.
• Rabies (2010 film), an Israeli film by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado
• In Trollhunter (2011), a movie about college students following a government Troll hunter, the Trolls have been infected with rabies, causing them to behave erratically.
• In The Barrens (2012), Stephen Moyer's character Richard has been bitten by his rabid dog. Richard suffers from the final symptoms of rabies as he and his family are camping in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and being stalked by the legendary Jersey Devil. Richard's rabies question whether the Devil is real (Richard mainly sees the Devil) or if it is caused by Richard's hallucinations.

In literature

(Alphabetical, by first author's surname)

• In K. A. Applegate and ghostwritter Emily Costello's novel The Journey (2000), book 42 of the Animorphs children's book series, one of the main characters, Marco, is bitten by a rabid dog while attempting to retrieve a camera from an apartment. Marco begins to experience early symptoms of the virus, but when he morphs into a cockroach, the virus is destroyed.
• In Max Brooks' post-apocalyptic horror novel, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006), the virus that turns people into zombies is at first thought to be a mutated strain of rabies, and is called "African rabies" throughout the earlier chapters.
• Fred Gipson and illustrator Carl Burger's children's novel Old Yeller (1956) and its 1957 film adaptation involves a frontier dog that becomes infected with furious rabies by a rabid wild wolf
• In Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), the character Tea Cake becomes infected with rabies from a dog bite.
• In Stephen King's psychological horror novel Cujo (1981), and 1983 film adaptation, a mother and son are terrorized by a rabid dog infected with furious rabies
• In Joe R. Lansdale's novel Bad Chili, one of the protagonists is bitten by a rabid squirrel.
• Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) uses the imagery of a rabid dog to represent the prejudices of the town of Maycomb, Alabama.
• In Daniel P. Mannix and illustrator John Schoenherr's novel The Fox and the Hound (1967), a rabid fox attacks a group of children.
• Gabriel García Márquez's novel Of Love and Other Demons (1994) is a love story between Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles, the protagonist who is bitten by a rabid dog on her 12th birthday, and Father Cayetano Delaura, who is sent to exorcise her.
• David Morrell's novel The Totem (1979) centers on a northwestern town that is terrorized by humans and animals infected with a (fictitious) variant of the rabies virus, which doesn't kill the infected, but does affect their minds and physiology (leading characters in the book to speculate that victims of this virus were the origin of the werewolf myth).
• In Chuck Palahniuk's novel Rant: n Oral Biography of Buster Casey (2007), the main character infects those around him with rabies.
• Borislav Pekić's horror-thriller novel Besnilo (1983; in English: Rabies) is about a genetically engineered rabies virus with a double protein envelope, thus extremely easy to transmit (biting is not necessary any more), which spreads from one victim to another extremely fast. The virus gets turned loose at the London's Heathrow Airport.
• Malayattoor Ramakrishnan's novel Verukal (1966) vividly describes a death from rabies when, in a side plot, the character Ramu dies of the disease.
• Wilbur Smith's novel When the Lion Feeds (1964) describes in harrowing detail the events ensuing from one of the main characters' death following a bite from a rabid jackal.
• Vikas Swarup's novel Q & A (2005) devotes one chapter to a rabies epidemic in Agra, during which the main character's new friend contracts rabies from a dog bite, and dies. The main character tries to save him, but is unable to obtain the money needed for a vaccine.

In music

• Rabies (Ruoska album) (2008), an album by Ruoska
• Rabies (Skinny Puppy album) (1989), an album by Skinny Puppy
• "Rabies" (1982), a song by NWBHM band Witchfinder General
• "Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)", a song from Alice Cooper's album, Dirty Diamonds (2005)

In television

(Alphabetical, by series title) Many television series have dedicated at least one episode to storylines involving rabies infected entities.

• 1000 Ways to Die, is a television series which, in one episode told a story about a taxidermist who contracts the disease from an infected squirrel.
• The Beavis and Butt-Head episode "Rabies Scare" has Beavis get bitten by a rabid dog. He bites antacid tablets to simulate foaming at the mouth.
• In Blue Mountain State Season 1, linebacker Thad Castle admits to using rabies as a performance enhancer because it gives him the same competitive edge as steroids but is undetectable to the NCAA's tests. Runningback Craig Shilo later shoots up with Thad's rabies before a competition with a prospective freshman runningback.
• Bonanza, in episode 25 of season 12, "A Time to Die", Ben's friend, April Christopher, gets bitten by a rabid wolf.
• In the season 27 episode of the BBC's Casualty titled If Not For You, a dog-bite patient is suspected to be suffering from rabies contracted through a corneal transplant performed in Algeria, causing a rare case where a human may have given a dog rabies.
• In the Criminal Minds season 9 episode Rabid, a sadistic kidnapper intentionally infects his victims with rabies and derives pleasure from videotaping their subsequent violent behavior.
• In the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation season 9 episode, "The Gone Dead Train", the CSIs are brought in to investigate a series of deaths tied in with rabies.
• In Season 13 of ER, a young boy contracts rabies.
• In season four of ITV's Heartbeat an episode entitled Mid Day Sun a family smuggle their rabies infected dog into the UK and a garage worker dies, resulting in a search across the North Yorkshire Moors for the rabid animal and its eventual shooting.
• Home Movies in episode 4 of season 1 ("Brendon Gets Rabies") vacationing neighbors leave their cat to be watched while out of town. The cat eventually escapes and is later found in a rabid state. The cat then bites Brendon while he attempts to catch it, and both are rushed off to the veterinarian for intensive care.
• In a Season 1 episode of House M.D. titled "Histories", Dr. Gregory House works to diagnose a homeless woman's illness, and it turns out that the woman is infected with rabies, from an untreated bat bite.^[7]
• King of the Hill, in the episode 9 of season 4 ("To Kill a Ladybird"), a paranoid Dale Gribble runs away in the woods, afraid that he may have been infected with rabies by a raccoon.
• Scrubs season 5 deals with the death of three patients resulting from organ transplants from an infected patient.
• In Seinfeld, Season 5, episode 3 "The Glasses" Elaine is bitten by a strange dog and has trouble communicating with the doctor about whether she should get a shot and later suspects she has rabies when she has difficulty swallowing.
• "Mad Dog" (April 6, 1977), series 3, episode 4 of Survivors (1975 TV series), in which a man who saves Charles from an attack by a pack of feral dogs discovers he is infected and exhibits signs of furious rabies
• In season one, episode six of ITV's The Grand John Bannerman and Clive Evans are bitten by a dog suspected of having rabies.
• The Mad Death, a 1983 BBC TV series in which Britain is gripped by an outbreak of rabies after an afflicted pet cat is illegally smuggled into the country.
• The Office season 4, Michael Scott, after running Meredith Palmer over with his car, finds out she was infected with rabies. To detract from his own negligence, he subsequently organizes a "5k race for the cure" in her honor.

In video games

• Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2^[8] by Valve Corporation are both set during an apocalyptic pandemic caused by a rabies-like virus that infects humans and causes them to attack any non-infected on sight.

References

1. Pemberton, Neil (2007). Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Rabies in Britain, 1830–2000. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-230-54240-9.
2. Lee, Harper (1984). To Kill A Mockingbird (Barron's Book Notes). Barron's Educational Series. ISBN 0-8120-3446-5.
3. Sontag, Susan (2001). Illness as Metaphor. Picador. pp. 127, 156. ISBN 0-312-42013-7.
4. Glenn, Kay (2008). Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide. Chicago Review Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 1-55652-770-5.
5. "Film : 28 Days Later". Montreal Mirror. 2003-07-02. Retrieved 2011-09-08.
6. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1082868/synopsis
7. "House – episode 10". Polite Dissent. Retrieved 2011-09-08.
8. Tom Ivan (2009-09-17). "Left 4 Dead 2 Banned In Australia - Edge Magazine". Next-gen.biz. Retrieved 2011-09-08.