Deranged

Deranged is a 2012 South Korean disaster science fiction thriller film starring Kim Myung-min, Kim Dong-wan, Moon Jung-hee and Lee Hanee. It is Korea's first medical thriller on an infectious disease epidemic (another related film, Flu, was released the next year in 2013). The film was directed by Park Jung-woo and produced by Lim Ji-young and Oz One Film. Distributed by CJ E&M, the film was released on July 5, 2012 and runs at 109 minutes. Plot Jae-hyuk (Kim Myung-min) is a former professor with a doctorate in biochemistry who is currently working as a pharmaceutical sales representative after losing his life savings and his job due to a bad investment he made in the stock market on the advice of his younger brother. When a series of dead bodies are found floating in the Han River, the public is shocked to discover that the deaths are related to a fatal outbreak of virus-infected mutant parasitic horsehair worms, called Yeongasi, that can control the human brain. Those infected show symptoms of increased hunger without appropriate weight gain and excessive thirst when the worms are mature and ready to reproduce. Hence, they jump into the river to allow the worms to come out of the body. While the authorities work to find a cure, Jae-hyuk and his brother Jae-pil (Kim Dong-wan), a detective who is agonized with guilt for squandering Jae-hyuk's money in the stock market, struggle to save Jae-hyuk's family when they exhibit similar symptoms to the infected. Starting with Seoul, dead bodies with similar signs of malnutrition are found every morning in rivers all across the country. The police have trouble understanding the cause of the sudden deaths, as all the victims don't show any physical symptoms but look gruesome as soon as they jump into the water. One victim is found dead in his bathtub, but there are also unidentifiable worm-like organisms swimming next to his dead body. Officials at the Ministry of Health find out that these organisms are parasitic horsehair worms that normally use insects as hosts but became mutated into a new form that allows them to infect human bodies as well. The sudden change in appearance that was seen consistently in all victims was caused when the parasites escaped the bodies in the water. As soon as the news gets out and the government makes a public announcement urging people who have been in or near water and show symptoms of hunger and thirst to get checked out, countless people rush to hospitals.