"Contagion," a thriller about the worldwide spread of a deadly unknown virus which hits theaters this Friday is being praised by some scientists for its realistic portrayal of epidemic infections.

So far, critics have rated it as an "exceptionally smart and scary disaster movie," according to the site Rottentomatoes.com with 81 percent of the critic giving it positive reviews. Some scientists have also given it a thumbs up because the type of the virus in the movie makes scientific sense.

The film - directed by Steven Soderbergh, stars Kate Winslet, Matt Damon and Lawrence Fishburne - is about a virus that kills its victims within hours of transmission. The victims start showing flu-like symptoms but quickly have seizures and brain hemorrhages.

The virus in the movie originates in bats, spreads to pigs and then to humans which was something "credible" for medical experts.

“I didn’t think it was going to be birds. If something bad is going to come for us, it’s going to come from a bat,” Dr. Ali Khan, the leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response told MSNBC about "Contagion".

Khan is one of the members of the staff from the CDC who worked during the filming of the movie two years ago. Some worked as extras and others provided technical advice to the crew, according to the report.

“I enjoy the fact that CDC is increasingly shown as the good guys,” Khan told MSNBC. “It reminds people that not only are we at risk of a novel pandemic, but also that CDC protects them from routine threats every day."