New sci-fi narratives like The Last of Us and Fallout have really hammered home that dystopian society is coming for everyone. In retrospect, it’s not exactly hard to see why. Film and television have been warning viewers for decades about how close everyone is to annihilation.
Despite its recent popularity, however, some post-apocalyptic features came and went without much remembrance, even if they are perfect examples of the genre. Whether these stories have always been cult favorites or fans are discovering them for the first time, there is no time like the present to revisit these forgotten gems.
The Road Was So Dark No One Remembered How Good It Was
Cormac McCarthy isn’t remembered for his light-hearted romps, but The Road is almost too disturbing, even for the writer’s standards. In 2009, his dark novel about the end of the world was adapted, starring Viggo Mortensen as Man and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Boy. Despite starring one of the biggest movie stars of the day, only a few years after the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings, The Road came and went uncelebrated.
This may have to do with how utterly bleak the subject material is, and yet, it is one of the best post-apocalyptic stories put to screen. The Road envisions the aftermath of a brutal nuclear holocaust where the world is a grim wasteland. Lack of food and an uptick in cannibalism are only some of the struggles the survivors have to deal with. The Road is the ultimate story of how people can be capable of terrible things, especially when there are no zombies or monsters to worry about.
It Comes At Night Was More of a Character Drama Than a Zombie Film
It Comes At Night came at a time when zombie fare was close to being exhausted. The Walking Dead had effectively killed the genre, so when It Comes At Night debuted, it may have been easy to ignore. This was tragic for the near-perfect family drama that takes place at the end of the world. Joel Edgerton stars as the patriarch of a family living in a remote home to stave off an infectious disease that has ravaged the planet. The stakes are high as the family has already killed one of their own for turning into a ravenous monster.
Their relative tranquility is disturbed when another family shows up, claiming not to be infected. It Comes At Night rejects the easy scares of typical zombie stories and instead uses them as a setup to explore human fears and paranoia. This zombie-fueled horror is a classic A24 project that is the perfect exploitation of human foibles.
The Girl with All the Gifts Was More Cerebral Than Most Zombie Films
Even when The Girl With All the Gifts can share a lot of real estate with The Last of Us, the 2017 dystopian drama can still be worlds away. Based on the book of the same name, The Girl With All the Gifts takes place when society has been taken down by a zombie virus, and one girl may be the key to setting the world back to the way it was. Just as with Ellie’s immunity, Melanie’s attributes are the key to the survival of humanity.
Despite its similarities to an incredibly popular franchise, The Girl With All the Gifts wasn’t a home run when it came out. The story was more interested in a slow-burn sci-fi story about whether humanity deserves to survive than an action romp. It doesn’t fall into the same tired traps and has an ending that fully justifies a perfect zombie set-up.
Love and Monsters Was Killed By Streaming
2020 was not a good year for theatrical releases, which is why the best monster movie, Love and Monsters, may have slipped under the radar. The year meant that many films were dumped on streaming, and some fell through the cracks. At first glance, Love and Monsters may have appeared like another mindless action flick. Instead, it was a heartfelt tale that was aptly named.
Dylan O’Brien stars as the unlikeliest of heroes, Joel, who believes he will reunite with his former girlfriend at the end of the world. After an apocalypse of monsters ends society, he and Aimee are separated, and it takes him years to find his way back to her. A truly underrated action flick, Joel’s journey is refreshing because it isn’t about the guy getting the girl, but learning that romantic love isn’t the end-all, be-all. Stories like these are rarely made, which makes the lack of attention in this one even more disappointing.
Snowpiercer Was Plagued By Studio Interference
Bong Joon-ho may be swimming in accolades thanks to Parasite, his socially aware story about classism, but in 2013, it was another matter altogether. At the time, the filmmaker had largely made international movies, and his cult classic, Snowpiercer, was not given the respect it deserved. Bong famously chafed with Harvey Weinstein about the cut of the movie, and Snowpiercer eventually only had a limited release. This result obscured the fact that the post-apocalyptic social commentary is one of the best in the genre.
In a world where society ended because of climate change, the remains of humanity live on a train that never stops. Civilization is separated into a caste system where the lowest tier lives at the back of the train, subsisting on protein blocks, while rich people at the front of the train get amenities and sushi. Snowpiercer is completely unsubtle about its critiques of class warfare and is an emotional tale that is also full of action. The story is heartbreaking at times and ultimately uplifting in a movie that deserved far more than it got.