Best apocalyptic and post apocalyptic movies and TV series (part 2)

You can read part 1 here.

This is part 2 of  a list of movies and TV shows that (in my humble opinion are the best) in the apocalyptic and post apocalyptic genres. This is based on personal preference and nothing more.

A word of warning: like in part 1, some of the movies here include gore and splatter. Where applicable, and depending on how I perceive something as containing extensive gore or not (very subjective), I’ll note it, but understand that this is based on how I see things. If you’re sensitive about this, read some of the reviews first or watch the trailer to get an idea of the feel and mood before you start watching it.

As always, the movies are in no particular order other than the way they came to my mind.

Children of men (2006)

This is the second movie of the entire list that depicts desolation and bleakness in the best way possible. Children of Men is based on the novel with the same title by P. D. James written in 1992. I’ve read the book while researching for my own post apocalyptic novel, The Darkening, and even though I am a writer and I loved P. D. James’s book, I have to admit that I absolutely adored the movie and prefer it to the book.

Much like the book, the movie takes place in the not too distant future and deals with the aftermath of an epidemic that has rendered the human race infertile and about to be extinct. The movie explores the bleakness and the finality of a doomed species, and how hard it is to maintain a semblance of order as the entire societal structure collapses along with the will to live and carry on. Just so we’re clear, this is an apocalyptic movie, not a post apocalyptic. The hero is tasked with helping a refugee reach a safe place, and is only told that the refugee must survive no matter what. Watch it because Clive Owen plays wonderfully here. Watch it because, as a post apocalypse fan, you like the bleakness and hopelessness that this movie shows. Expect mild violence and an overall feeling of depression to overwhelm you. This is my all time favourite post apocalyptic movie!

Buy it from Amazon


Blindness (2008)

Blindness is an apocalyptic movie that deals with how humans will most likely act once civilisation crumbles, or when placed in a confined space with no set rules or laws to regulate life and every day activities.

A strange epidemic causes people to lose their sight, which consequently brings the collapse of civilisation. The movie follows a group of people placed in quarantine in an old mental institution and their struggle for power and dominance. One of those quarantined still has her sight and witnesses everything that’s been happening to them. It’s up to her to lead a group of survivors outside and keep them safe from a second group who have turned violent against those who can’t defend themselves. It doesn’t take long for their jail to descend into chaos. Expect some violence.

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The Day (2011)

Expect some gore with this one. This movie has gone unnoticed by a lot of people. Maybe this was due to a low budget. It’s a post apocalyptic movie that takes place primarily in a farmhouse (low budget, remember?) and the surrounding area, where a group of five people seek shelter, food, and some rest, since one of their own is sick. As they search the house for food, they activate a trap set by the cannibals who control the region. This is when things really start to worsen. Like many movies before, it also focuses on the question of how far humans would go to survive and how much that survival would come at a cost of their humanity. The setting is exactly as it should be (bleak and grey) and helps the viewer experience the aftermath of the apocalypse. Expect violence and some gore. I wish people had paid more attention to this movie, despite its low budget and the lack of big movie stars (though I’m sure a lot of you will recognise at least two of the actors).

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The Divide (2011)

I’m going to say it right out: expect excessive amounts of violence and gore. This is a very graphic movie not meant for kids or even teens. You will need to have a rather strong stomach for this one.

Having said that, it is probably one of the best apocalyptic movies, not because of the stellar script (it’s anything but stellar or original, since it has a few cliches here and there, some plot points feel as if they were rushed, and a few plot holes), but for the very strong performances. If only it wasn’t as graphic, then people might appreciate it more.

The movie takes place immediately after a nuclear strike on a major city. A few residents of one of the buildings make it to the basement where they seal themselves and supposedly wait the whole thing out. But, as is expected when a lot of people are gathered in a small space and there are hardly enough supplies to go around, things get out of control pretty fast. In this case, a little too fast. “Hell is other people,” one reviewer said about this movie and they were right! Like many other movies of the genre, The Divide also shows the viewer how far humans could go to survive and how easy it is to lose ourselves and become savage.

Again, this is not a movie for the faint of heart or for young viewers.

Buy it from Amazon


Hidden (2015)

Hidden is a post apocalyptic horror film that, for the most part, takes place in a basement (anyone who has read my own The Darkening should be able to see a pattern here as well as with The Divide and other movies in this list).

The world has been ravaged by a viral outbreak that has turned humans into monsters. A family of three (father, mother, and daughter) have taken refuge in a basement from those they call the Breathers, and have turned the cramped basement into home. They have set several rules to make their life easier and to help as much as possible with the situation. Up to that point, the monsters outside (the Breathers) have been actively hunting the family but have never managed to find them. However, accidents happen and things turn ugly after a while. The movie starts slowly, and it may even bore you at first, but don’t judge it hastily. It will pay you off later when we learn more about what has happened.

Expect some violence, some heightened heartbeats (after all, this is a thriller/horror movie), and yes some depressing feelings.

Buy it from Amazon


These Final Hours (2013)

You’d be surprised at how much this film can affect and move you in the end. This is an apocalyptic movie, though to be honest, it takes place a few hours before the apocalypse strikes the area where the protagonists are. I wonder if there’s a term for something that happens moments before the apocalypse strikes, like pre-apocalypse? Prepocalypse…?

Anyway, an asteroid has hit the Earth, giving twelve hours of life for the heroes before the coming firestorm reaches them at the other side of the planet. Unlike the previous films, there are no confined spaces here. The hero wants to go to the party-to-end-all-parties but on the way there, he encounters a little girl, who is about to be raped. The hero saves the girl, and she tells him that she wants to find her father. Throughout the movie the two form a strong bond that will help the hero understand a few things about himself. There’s some violence, some nudity, a lot of feelings of redemption, and you can’t help but cheer for the two main characters. Don’t let that fool you, it’s still a depressing movie that borrows bitter-sweet elements from movies like The Road (just borrows though, and only a couple of elements–you’ll know once you make it all the way to the end).

Buy it from Amazon


Jericho (2006 – 2008)

Ah, my favourite post apocalyptic show. Cancelled, unfortunately 🙁 but still a great show to watch. Oh, and for the record, technically speaking, though the show was cancelled, the creators have given an end to the events with two more seasons of comic book series.

As a TV show without the time constraints found on movies (I’m sick and tired of movies lasting only 90-100 minutes!), Jericho deals more with the social dynamics of a community (the town of Jericho) in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, rather than dealing with hardcore survival and going to the extreme to accomplish that. As such, it is much milder with hardly any violent scenes that you haven’t already seen in nearly every TV show out there.

Nuclear explosions have devastated several of the major US cities, leaving the inhabitants of Jericho cut off from the outside world. When they manage to establish communications and an economy system with a neighbouring town, they end up in a bloody conflict with them. As is expected with TV shows, we learn bits and pieces of each character’s background and how they all tie in with the situation at hand. And we also start getting glimpses of what has actually happened and who was behind the attacks.

Buy it from Amazon

Season 1, Season 2


The Walking Dead (2010-still on air as of this writing)

You thought I had forgotten this one, didn’t you? Well, my personal dislike for most anything zombie related, this show has a massive following. So I couldn’t help but include it. After all, it is a good show.

The Walking Dead is based on a comic book series, if I’m not mistaken. The show starts off with a sheriff waking up from a coma, after being shot in the line of duty, and finding himself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. After the shock of waking up surrounded by walking corpses passes, he sets off to find his family. Eventually he ends up leading a group of survivors and with them he travels the country in search of food and safety. However, living in a world overrun by zombies takes its toll, not only to the number of survivors that make it alive after each episode, but also to what those survivors are willing to do to carry on living. You can expect a great deal of interpersonal conflict (as is the case with most TV shows of this kind) that sometimes may end up being just as bad as facing the zombie horde. Constant exposure to death and danger changes everyone and the same is true for the heroes of this show. Expect mild horror scenes and some chilling encounters with zombies early on. Nothing over the top, nothing you won’t get used to over the course of the show, and certainly nothing that should deter you from watching it.

Buy it from Amazon

Season 1, season 2, season 3, season 4, season 5, season 6, season, 7, season 8, season 9.


Shaun of the Dead (2004)

I saved the best for the end. The last entry of this two-part list is a comedy. Yes, a comedy, and I left it for the end in an attempt to cheer you up a bit. Shaun of the Dead is a British movie set in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The movie follows Shaun, who is having a rather bad day. His girlfriend has left him and he is sharing his place with his best friend. So he decides to turn his life around. The only problem is, he decided to do it at the worst time possible: when zombies are running (or shuffling) rampant in the streets.

Expect a lot of laughter from two very talented British actors caught up in some pretty comical situations. A must-see movie!

Buy it from Amazon


And that’s it. I hope you enjoyed reading this list. Naturally, the movies and TV shows mentioned here are some of my personal favourites. I’m sure there are other movies and shows out there that I either forgot to mention or haven’t seen. Feel free to comment with your choices.

Thoughts on post apocalypse

I was without internet for about three days, and I have to admit that’s pretty much how I felt.

Since I don’t spend too much time on social media (okay, okay, I hardly ever spend any), what annoyed me the most was that I couldn’t save my work on the cloud. And the fact that I couldn’t do any research for my work. Also, the fact I couldn’t reach out to other authors who write post apocalyptic horror, like The Darkening and arrange some cross promotions (you can find more about my book here, by the way).

However, it got me thinking as to how would our civilisation react to a scenario where the internet no longer worked. I tried to come up with a chain of events that could happen, and the reaction it would take from us to either carry on from where we stopped or start anew.

To carry on from where we stopped it would mean that we would have access to an alternative technology that already exists but has yet to be used (probably because of a more reliable, like the internet), and that the means to spread it to every country are also there and have not been affected by the collapse of the internet.

To start anew means that we’re talking about a possible post-apocalyptic case, the current civilisation has collapsed, and that it’s up to those who remain to create something new with what it would be available to them at the time. Availability here also includes knowledge and the means to pass it on to future generations.

Naturally, this led me to ponder on our dependency on technology to do even the most basic things (like talking to each other, for instance). I’m one of those who believe that if we were to experience an apocalyptic event that brought the end of every kind of advanced technology we currently have, not many of us would be able to pick up the pieces and carry on living in stone age conditions. Just imagine what our lives would be like without running water and electricity at our disposal. Without being able to properly heat our houses. The networks for electricity distribution and the water supply rely on the internet. Probably not the same as the one you and I use, but one that could be affected just the same. In an apocalyptic scenario, these are the first that would collapse. Then of course, there’s the banking system one has to consider, but I think lack of water and electricity would cause more chaos than the fall of the banks.

And of course, our medicine. We have a pill for nearly everything these days, and hardly ever do we rely on our own immune systems to do the job they were meant to do. I’m not a biologist, but I think this may have potentially weakened us. Just think of how many unseen things are in a glass of non purified water that runs from our taps. The word dysentery keeps popping into my mind.

I have no doubt that we would be able to scavenge from what was left and make do for a while, but what would happen after we ran out of things to scavenge and had to make new ones? Let’s say you need a new pan to cook your fish. How easy is it nowadays for you as a consumer to acquire a pan, and how easy is it to manufacture one these days? They probably come out of an assembly line by the thousands in record time (just guessing here, obviously). Would it be as easy if you had to mine the mineral, separate the impurities, melt it, mold it/shape it, then distribute it? How many of us here know how to do any of these things? The process is the same in both cases, but I believe that although our technology has made us the dominant species on Earth, our dependency on it and the ease it brings to our every day lives, has also become an obstacle and a hindering factor. And then one has to take into account the complexity in creating things, which is why we have specialised and trained people for almost everything. However, high level of knowledge in a field, means people know just the one field. Survival, requires more than one though.

What do you think would happen if one day the internet were to stop working completely? What would the chain of events be after that?

One step at a time

It’s been a little while, right? I apologise for that. 2018 was a year full of ups and downs, with things happening at an alarmingly fast pace. So much so that at times it was hard for me to keep up. Those of you who know me in person, know that I like things to happen slowly over time. But such is life; it rarely does our bidding. Which is probably why I write fiction, I guess. Anything can happen there.

Though I’m not a big fan of new year resolutions (in other words, I don’t like them at all), this year I decided to stick to at least one that I feel is extremely important to me: reduce my stress levels considerably and, in doing so, enjoy writing once again. Between publishing my début novel, The Darkening, dealing with family-related health issues, trying to learn new skills (anyone willing to teach a Photoshop newbie like me some things in record time?), and other things that life often throws our way, I neglected a lot of things that I shouldn’t have, but most importantly, I drifted away from much of social life.

So what are this year’s plans? First of all, acquire the necessary funds to publish book 1 of my upcoming cyberpunk trilogy, then publish said book. I have decided to worry about funding books 2 and 3 after book 1 has gone live. The reason for that is in part that I have not yet written books 2 and 3. Chances are that all three books will be funded, in part or full, through crowdfunding, assuming the campaigns are successful.

As for other plans… drum roll please…

I have started drafting book 2. I believe I have a solid story, as well as strong and interesting set of characters.

After that, I’ll start outlining book 3… for the sixth time (!!), since nothing seems to be good enough. Again, I’ll worry about that in due time.

The Darkening is here!

When I was a kid at school (way back, around the age of six, when I still had hair on my head), I realised I was a little bit different from the other kids. I had an edge in English classes.Thanks to my father and his side of the family, I could speak the language before the teachers taught us anything about it. During most of my academic years, I was an average student, mostly because I found everything boring or the teachers didn’t make the classes interesting enough. But that was not the case with English classes.

The way my life unfolded before me, led me into a path that eventually, a few decades later, brought me to the point of authoring a novel with two more on the way, and a dozen or so short stories published on various markets. In a language other than my native: English. Who would have thought?

It’s amazing how little and seemingly unrelated things can end up defining a person and their careers. A few years back, I would have laughed at the idea of me becoming a writer. Five years ago, my friend Panos, said to me, “Well, why don’t you write a book? Are the others who do it better than you?”

That last question is something that can only be answered when my career in writing has come to an end and only in retrospect. It also involves a lot of subjectivity.

Fast forward to today: I published a full novel! And I’m thankful for it to all those people who unbeknownst to them nudged me a little further down the path I’m currently on. Nudges that were caused by events completely unrelated to each other.

And look at that! Even though the book has just been released, it’s already getting positive reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.

And this one

This writer is pleased he has made his readers happy 🙂

As an extra bonus, you can get your electronic copy of The Darkening at a discount for only $2.99 (or €2.99 if you’re in Europe) until Thursdsay, November 1. After that, the ebook goes back up to its standard price of 4.49, so hurry up and get your copy before the offer expires!

Amazon

All other retailers

Don’t fear the dark. Fear the light.
 
The end came when light changed. It decimated humanity, leaving scattered bands of survivors stumbling in the dark.
 
Faced with saving himself or his family during the apocalypse, John Piscus made the wrong choice, and has been living with the guilt ever since.
 
When a glowing girl shows up at John’s shelter begging for help, his instincts tell him to kill her. After all, light kills.
 
But when masked troopers tasked with capturing survivors come after them, it’s up to John to protect himself and the girl. Not only may she hold the key to reversing the lethal effects of light, she could also be the one who can save his soul.
 
If you love dark settings and characters faced with tough choices that result in horrific and sinister outcomes, don’t miss this post-apocalyptic horror read.
 
Discover the dangers in the world of The Darkening today.

The Darkening is a post-apocalyptic horror novel and is available as an ebook and paperback from all major retailers.

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The hour of The Darkening is approaching

You’ve been following this blog for a while, and in a way it’s almost as if we’ve known each other for as long. And yet, most of you have never heard the sound of my voice. Or my accent. Ever. Hmm…

It also occurred to me that I haven’t shared the cover of my novel with you either, have I? A few weeks ago, I made a quick video where I was unboxing the proof copy of The Darkening.

There’s a video on Youtube where you can find out what I sound like AND get a glimpse of the cover for my post-apocalyptic horror novel, The Darkening. That’s two birds with one stone, right?

Enjoy!