Classic "End of the World" movies

[ChristineBCW]

There are Virus apocalypses - like the recent CONTAGION, or perhaps 1965's THE SATAN BUG - that don't involve some zombie plague afterwards.

The Virus films should probably also include IMPULSE (1984), THE CRAZIES (1973 and the recent remake (2012). 

Then the Virus-Zombie apocalypse films, including the 28 DAYS/WEEKS LATER.  Wouldn't a "high level of radiation then Zombies" fit into this Affliction-then-Zombie genre?  I hope so...

The Nuclear War films seem most effective when the film focuses primarily on Pre- or Post-Apocalypse.  THE DAY AFTER tries to do both, and is a vignette of tales, all of which could be interesting enough by themselves. 

We also have the Comet Apocalypse - which introduces Blindness, Triffids and Zombies in their passing.  BLINDNESS (2008) should also be mentioned at this point.

RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR (2006) is a dirty-bomb terrorist attack in LA, and poor Mark Ruffalo only follows the radio's instructions, and pay a high price.

So many films.. so little time...

[Monsters For Sale]

I watch monster movies for fun.  When I am feeling particularly morose, I watch end-of-the-world movies one right after the other.

I am a big fan of "Testament" with William Devane (briefly) but really starring Jane Alexander.  It and the Jason Robards TV movie "The Day After" show the steady deterioration of society and life after nearby nuclear strikes.

"Threads" is a much darker BBC TV entry which details the same events.  It is a fictionalization of a post-WWIII ordeal similar to the ones in the BBC docu-drama "The War Game" which purports to show the public where they might be heading, if they don't wise up.  "Threads" is as much of a downer as "The Road".

"The Noah" tells the story of the last man on earth through the tour-de-force performance of character actor Robert Strauss.  You may not place the name, but you will remember the face and voice.

For those of you who like the type of movies listed above, I would recommend a nice little dirty bomb drama titled "Right At Your Door".  But, please, don't tell anyone how it ends.

[Monsters For Sale]

...
RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR (2006) is a dirty-bomb terrorist attack in LA, and poor Mark Ruffalo only follows the radio's instructions, and pay a high price. ...

Argh!  You beat me to it.

[Monsters For Sale]

I do also like movies that have fun with the whole idea.

Like "The Bed Sitting Room", truly odd little British after The Bomb farce where everyone lives on a huge pule of broken pottery shards.

Or "Dead End Drive-In", an Australian oddity about post-apocalyptic society.

[ChristineBCW]

I didn't bring up THE LAST WAVE, either which is an '80s film - I sort of think the '60s is now the cut-off date for Classic Films.  I have a hard time accepting "classic" now including the decade in which I was born!  (Honestly, I think that's the problem I have with considering any '70s film as 'classic'.)

Thanks for this note about the Aussie DEAD-END DRIVE-IN.  We collect this genre of film, and especially the non-USA ones because there doesn't seem to be too many of these.  I don't know why.  Corman's use of Bronson Canyon and a fog machine showed that fancy sets aren't needed at all.  Some silly raggedy-ann foam costume works fine for any radioactive goat-eatin' monster.

It's fascinating that Russian cinema - especially the Stalinist-into-Breshnev eras don't seem to have any apoco-films, nor any radioactive-monster films.  Reptilicus never swam up the Baltic, past Gdansk, pasts Talinn into Leningrad apparently.  Darn.  What fun that could have been!  There definitely was a Radioactive Film Gap between East and Wst.

[Monsters For Sale]

...  We collect this genre of film, and especially the non-USA ones because there doesn't seem to be too many of these. ...

I suppose you have "Atomic War Bride", the 1960 Yugoslavian film.  It can be had as half of a double-feature DVD along with "This Is Not a Test".

Neither is a "classic", but I have always liked the microcosm presented in "This Is Not a Test".  It feels like a small stage play done as a term project at a junior college.  Very intimate.

[Mike Scott]

There definitely was a Radioactive Film Gap between East and Wst.

Mr. President, we have a Radioactive Film Gap!!

[ChristineBCW]

Oh yes!  THAT'S the name of the Yugoslav film.  We went to Croatia for Summer, 2014, and long-time penpals got us in touch with more of that film's fans.  It is available there in an elongated version but, once again, pan-and-puked down to 4x3. 

[ChristineBCW]

I think RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR probably shouldn't be included in this list because, well, it's not quite an apocalypse unless you're that neighborhood's real estate agent. 

This was a film I - for some reason - didn't like the first time I saw it.  Talk about bad mood!  But a couple of years later, I plugged it in and I was quite taken with it.  Ruffalo.  His neighbor.  The phone call from his accusatory mother-in-law.  Everything about it hit a completely different tone. 

There are a few mad-bomber films, and maybe there should be a thread covering lists of those as well as more modern apocalyptic films.   Should we have one that segregates out Virus or Afflictions (ie, "Oh blinding light!  Oh, light that blinds!  Watch out for meeee-!  I cannot seeeee-!!" - ie, TRIFFIDS, DAY OF THE COMET, BLINDNESS, etc., plus all the zombie-resulting films like 28 HOURS-DAYS-WEEKS-MONTHS-YEARS ad nauseums)?

Then there'd need to be the Meteor Apocalyse films - those Ellies' - er, ELE - Extinction of Life on Earth events.  I think CRACK IN THE WORLD, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE might qualify, along with VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.  (I mean, any film that matches Jeannie, Joel Cairo and Joan Fontaine with Walter Pidgeon - why not?)

[Sean]

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

[Nosferatu79]

Sorry if it's been mentioned...but Roger Corman's "Day The World Ended" comes to mind:

[Monsters For Sale]

I don't think anyone has mention this little film I have in my DVD collection:

"Glen and Randa", 1971.

Story of a young rural couple who live in times well after a world-wide nuclear war.  Most of the conveniences have disappeared and people live in a barter economy. 

They have never known what the world was like before the war.  They decide to travel to a big city to see what it was like.

This is a U.S. movie, shot in California for next to nothing.  But it has always felt like a foreign film to me.

Some nudity.

   

[Monsters For Sale]

Sorry if it's been mentioned...but Roger Corman's "Day The World Ended" comes to mind:

Funny, I don't think any has mentioned this one yet - AND WITH THAT TITLE, YET!

I saw the movie in 1955, when it was still new and I was only 8 or 9.

It was remade almost verbatim as "In the Year 2889" in 1967.  Didn't care for the remake as much as the original.  But, loving the genre as much as I do, I had to see it.

[Monsters For Sale]

Just acquired and watched this one:



"These Final Hours", 2013

This is an Australian movie that is sort of like "On the Beach" but has nothing to do with radiation.  No, I guess it is really more like "Seeking a Friend For the End of the World".  The Aussie accents are pretty strong and much of the dialog is delivered a bit fast.  Even though this was in English, I watched it with the subtitles on.  It helped a lot with a couple of the actors.

(Advisory - Nudity and sexual situations.)

[Mike...In 3-D!]

I don't know if it counts, but I always liked "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price.

That's my #1. I'm also a huge fan of The Road Warrior and Turbo Kid. Turbo Kid pretty much being a newer version of The Road Warrior on BMX.