Source: Screenshot from trailer
The first trailer for pandemic horror/thriller, ‘Songbird’ dropped at midnight on 30th October 2020. The movie takes place in 2024, showing the world trapped in a ‘new norm,’ which is basically an ongoing lockdown for 213 weeks. The movie stars K.J. Apa and Sofia Carson, a couple separated by the pandemic and living under martial law.
Just a day before Halloween, the trailer captured everyone’s biggest fears, namely a virus mutation, higher death tolls and the need for far more extreme measures. The trailer even depicts realistic headlines that we have all become too familiar with in the past month reading “COVID-23 infections at record levels.”
Not only does the story depicted in the trailer hit too close to home, the virus in this dystopian film is named COVID-23, leading netizens to falsely believe that a new COVID-19 mutation had been discovered. At the time of writing, a mere 14 hours after the trailer dropped, #COVID-23 has garnered 18.3K tweets.
The public sentiment is united about the movie being tone-deaf to the current global situation. It began with tweets panicking and wondering why COVID-23 was trending.
Then came realisation that COVID-23 was just about a movie.
The trailer left netizens feeling unsettled and disturbed.
Having watched the trailer ourselves, it definitely raised our heartbeats. COVID-19 has been a force to reckon with. Nobody expected worldwide lockdowns. Over 1.18 million people have lost their lives.
The truth of the matter is that we’re still finding our way through these challenging times, and it certainly doesn’t help that the name of the virus in the movie is so similar to the virus and horror in our current lives.
In a different time and place, this movie may have been an exciting watch. Contagion, a similar movie released in 2011 about a pandemic was applauded for its realism earlier this year.
But for now, Halloween may be tomorrow but perhaps we’ve already had a bit too much horror this year.
By: Catalina Hubbard
