Media That Scratches My Fever-Ridden Brain Just Right
This past week, I travelled back home from college with the flu. As woeful as that may sound, my sickly bed rotting had a silver lining: I got to watch my favorite fever-dream media in the ideal state of mild confusion and delusion. While this article could have been hundreds of pages long, I have taken on the arduous task of selecting my five favorite films to watch in such an undesirable state–works that bewilder the sober, confuse the intoxicated, and make absolute sense with a 100° fever. Despite their strange and otherworldly qualities, they each offer some sense of comfort during an otherwise sweaty and miserable time.
#1 - Jon Favreau's 2005 feature film Zathura: A Space Adventure
Zathura: A Space Adventure is the story of two brothers who find an old board game that magically transports their entire house into deep space where they face countless cosmic threats–a defective robot, reptilian aliens, meteors etc. As their journey unfolds, the brothers must overcome their differences, work with their older sister, and finish the game to return home safely. So yeah, it’s Jumanji in space. If that doesn’t sound like an epically disjointed, feverish cinematic experience to you, nothing will. The clunky and obvious CGI only draws me in further. It feels charmingly tactile, as if the universe itself is constructed from cardboard and glue. Those early-2000s special effects–the robot's jerky movements, the lizard people's rubber suits–reveal themselves to be profoundly artistic when distorted by a feverish haze. There is something about watching a critically bad or rip-off film from your childhood, while sick, that reignites its original magic. Also, the sick brain has a funny way of breezing past an incestuous plotline with a level of stupidity that makes the film significantly more enjoyable.
#2 - Gerald Potterton's 1981 animated feature Heavy Metal
This cult classic adult animation practically demands the altered consciousness that comes with a high temperature. I mean, it barely has a discernible plot. Heavy Metal operates through a fragmented narrative structure—following a glowing green orb called the Loc-Nar across different dimensions and time periods. As the film blends science fiction, fantasy, and horror, you are taken on a hallucinatory expedition in which the constraints of reality shift and blur together. Honestly, watching this film with a fever just puts you on the same wavelength as its creators. I can't imagine where I'd even begin writing this without a high fever or a tab of acid. The psychedelic animation style, with its vibrant colors and surreal imagery, synchronizes perfectly with the heightened sensory experience of a feverish state—the pulsing progressive rock soundtrack complements it perfectly. You are under no obligation, as a viewer, to concretely follow this film. When I'm sick, I'd say I like to experience media more than I like to actually watch it. Heavy Metal provides you with that technicolor chaos, the grotesque and the beautiful, the terrifying and the absurd, and asks nothing more from you than your presence. It is an experience in itself.
#3 - Fred Wolf's 1971 animated feature The Point
The Point is a whimsical 1971 animated film that follows Oblio, the only round-headed boy in a kingdom where everyone’s head is adorned with a point, as he journeys through the Pointless Forest after being banished. When stuck in bed with a fever, this film offers the perfect escape–its gentle pacing and dreamlike animation seamlessly meld with a fever-dulled mind. The storytelling, with its warm narration, provides the same sense of comfort as childhood bedtime stories, enveloping you in a deep nostalgia as you rest. Harry Nilsson's soothing folk-rock soundtrack has proven itself an excellent counter to a crippling headache–a calming audio landscape that soothes as you wait for the Advil to kick in. At a merciful 74 minutes, this film requires little commitment from your energy reserves, yet its light existential themes provide just enough mental engagement for you to momentarily transcend your physical discomfort. And “Me And My Arrow” is a perfect song.
#4 - Rob Reiner's 1987 feature film The Princess Bride
In my humble opinion, The Princess Bride is the sick film. It is a whimsical fairy tale that combines adventure, romance, and wit, telling the story of a young woman named Buttercup who is reunited with her true love, Westley, after he's presumed dead. But it all begins with the grandpa as he opens up a book to read the story of Buttercup to his sick, young grandchild as he settles into bed. Watching this film while sick, I feel I am that little boy, tucked underneath the blanket as an extraordinary, humorous, and nostalgia-filled adventure unfolds before me. This is also one of those films with a million highly memorable and quotable lines. Strange, charming characters like Inigo Montoya and Miracle Max speak in such bizarre yet infectious lingo that your feverish brain registers it as nothing more than everyday language. And if you’re one of many who were first introduced to this film in their early childhood years, that script should be practically imprinted in your brain. So if you’re too sick and tired to follow a film scene by scene, this one shouldn’t be too hard to catch up with at a moment’s notice when you return from fever dream to reality.
#5 - Rebecca Sloan and Joseph Pelling's 2011 short series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared
I feel like I shouldn’t even have to explain this one. The series is a fever. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is a surreal horror-comedy series that begins as a cheerful children's show before descending into disturbing and nightmarish scenarios. It follows three puppet roommates repeatedly subjected to grotesque “life lessons" by sentient, singing objects. Watching this while sick is the ultimate blurring of boundaries between the real and digital. Its use of mixed media—puppetry, practical effects, animation, and digital distortion—cultivates a viewing experience during which you're never sure if what you're witnessing is meant to be the characters' reality, a show within a show, or your own hallucinations bleeding through the screen. It’s a wonderful and truly confounding kind of madness that tickles the sick mind like no other. Nothing can make sense of this series quite like the fever-ridden brain.
Whether you're battling the flu or simply craving a break from reality, these five pieces of media provide that ideal mix of comfort, confusion, a little bit of fear, and charm. Next time you're stuck in bed with a box of tissues, think of it as a chance to experience these magical worlds through the unique perspective that only comes with a slight temperature.