Cable guy comes to fix cable problems for bored, lonely housewife...
Maude: You can imagine where it goes from here.
The Dude: He fixes the cable?
Seriously, I think it would be cool to do a low budget approach of a long incubating virus. Soldiers could hole up right at the beginning of the movie, be paranoid that one of them may have it, think the world is ending. But in reality, it was very localized and didn't spread, so they turned on each other for nothing. Plus, you don't need much of a special effects budget, just some alka seltzer to simulate their nervous systems siezing up. That and bullet squibs for when they kill each other.
Sure it's a knock off of The Thing and Night of, but when you boil it down, that isn't bad as far as sources to rip off.