The War Game (1965)
Nuclear War Mockumentary
Peter Watkins stark, brutal mockumentary about a nuclear strike on England, this was banned from the BBC and still makes for harsh viewing today
Social Collapse
Social Collapse concerns the dissolution of the bonds of civilised order and a society’s fall into anarchy and barbarism. This is frequently depicted in terms of rioting, rampant lawlessness, looting and lack of individual safety. As this becomes more widespread, we see groups maintaining a tenuous coexistence or mutual defence in the absence of widespread law and order. Where any form of society regathers in the aftermath, it usually consists of small self-contained communities or is governed by warlords.
Stories range all the way from the beginning of collapse to the immediate aftermath of the fall of civilisation. Stories set after that point are dealt with under After the Holocaust. Films frequently concern a small group seeking to get to a place of safety as the world is in the process of collapsing into anarchy.
The cause of social collapse is some form of Catastrophe – be it revolution, Alien Invasion, Plague and Pandemic, a zombie apocalypse, an outbreak of Nuclear War, or circumstances that are smaller and more localised in scale.
Fight Club (1999)
Brawling Clubs/Anarchist Revolution/Split Personality
David Fincher tackles Chuck Palahniuk’s novel about secret brawling clubs. Maybe the only major studio film with an openly anarchist manifesto. Brilliant, incendiary, all over the map plotwise and thoroughly unique
The Day of the Triffids (1981)
The Downfall of Civilisation/Lethal Plants Amok
Excellent and extremely faithful tv adaptation of the John Wyndham book. This tells the story in terms of ordinary people forced to survive in a harsh world overtaken by killer plants and contains some exceptional writing
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Zombies
The film that created the modern zombie genre, that took a creature from voodoo and reinvented at a something stumbling and wanting only to devour flesh. George Romero creates a horror film that shoots out all cozy, established convention
Cosmopolis (2012)
Vision of Near-Future Social Collapse
David Cronenberg film that takes place in a limousine and consists of a surreal drift through a near-future world in the midst of economic collapse, observing it with darkly brilliant, razor-sharp agitprop dialogue
Civil War (2024)
US Social Collapse
Alex Garland is one of the most interesting creative names out there in the genre at the moment. Here he offers a frightening depiction of a near future USA collapsed into civil war
Diary of the Dead (2007)
Zombie Found Footage Film
George Romero returns to zombies, making a Found Footage film. After the disappointment of Land of the Dead, he delivers the goods here, while making powerful political points about modern media
Delicatessen (1991)
Strange Apartment Building/Gonzo Comedy
In their debut, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro make an hilariously eccentric and unclassifiable film about the inhabitants of a strange apartment building
Escape from New York (1981)
Action/New York as a Future Prison
One of the key films from John Carpenter with Kurt Russell giving his best ever performance, a slick exciting action film that imagines a future Manhattan Island having been transformed into a lawless prison
The Rover (2014)
Socially Collapsed Near Future
Impressive Australian film that recalls the Mad Max films. Rather than action spectacle, this feels like Mad Max as rewritten by Cormac McCarthy wherein a collapsed future echoes a beautifully written exploration of the soul of a man in a violent world
Threads (1984)
Nuclear War
UK tv movie that sets out to offer an unflinching depiction of a nuclear strike. About as bleak as it is possible to get
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Zombies
George Romero’s successor to his cult hit of Night of the Living Dead. Romero creates a very different film, one that takes place in a mall and comes with a level of droll satire. A bigger budget allows him to push things to gore-drenched extremes
Lord of the Flies (1963)
Reversion to Barbarism
A starkly effective film adaptation of William Golding’s classic novel about a group of British schoolboys stranded on a desert island in a plane crash and their descent into barbarism
Lord of the Flies (2026)
Reversion to Barbarism
A tv mini-series remake of William Golding’s classic novel about schoolboys stranded on a desert island and their descent into barbarism. This gets the essence of the book with a raw primality that makes for exciting viewing
The Crazies (1973)
Madness Inducing Biospill
George Romero’s most underrated film, filled with disturbing images as the population of a town are driven crazy by a bio-weapon spill The first and also the best of a number films on the theme of outbreaks of mass insanity
The Trigger Effect (1996)
The Downfall of Civilisation
Excellent and understated directorial debut from screenwriter David Koepp where a mysterious citywide power cut suddenly brings out tensions and prejudices among people
Shatter Dead (1994)
The Resurrected Dead
A film that deserves a cult reputation, this is possibly the most unique and original take on the zombie film I have ever come across
The Girl With All the Gifts (2016)
Zombie Film
The zombie film has become a creatively exhausted genre in recent years. This is an effort that completely changes the game with fiercely original effect, anchored by one of the best child performances in some time
High-Rise (2015)
Residents of an Apartment Block Revert to Barbarism/J.G. Ballard Adaptation
Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s novel about the residents of a high-rise apartment block and their descent into barbarism. The film is rich with biting social allegory and is Wheatley’s most accomplished to date
Blindness (2008)
Plague of Blindness
A hugely underrated film that depicts the brutal collapse of society that occurs when the entire world is affected by a plague that causes blindness. Directed in strong and powerful images
Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)
Children Kill All Adults
Fine Spanish-made killer children film inspired by The Birds where children inexplicably turn and kill adults. This has developed a modest cult and works with frequently unsettling effect
These Final Hours (2013)
End of the World
Excellent Australian End of the World film. Think On the Beach by way of Last Night. The visions of social collapse are astonishingly raw, while the centre of the film is the emotional journey between a man and a child
Themroc (1973)
Reversion to Barbarism Satire
Anarchic French film entirely without dialogue as a group of people in an apartment begin to revert to pre-civilised behaviour
Testament (1983)
Nuclear Holocaust
Part of a cluster of strong strong and powerful depiction of the outbreak of nuclear war that came out in the mid-1980s. This avoids melodrama by staying focused on a family’s attempts to cope
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Urban Siege
The second film from John Carpenter, a powerful and effective work about a handful of police and prisoners trapped in a police station at siege from an all-out assault by gang members outside
Relaxer (2018)
Slacker Plays a Videogame Amid Surreal Happenings
Mind-bogglingly surreal, almost indescribable film from Joel Potrykus as a slacker attempts to complete a videogame sitting on a couch as assorted things including the Y2K apocalypse happen around him
If … (1968)
Armed Revolution in a British Boy's Boarding School
A wildly anarchic fantasy where Malcolm McDowell leads an armed revolution against the petty tyranny of a British boy’s boarding school. The first in a trilogy of social commentary films for director Lindsay Anderson
The Divide (2011)
Survivors of a Nuclear Holocaust in a Cellar
Tough and brutal depiction of the collapse of civilised order among a group of survivors of a nuclear holocaust holed up in a cellar. This holds an incredibly bleak depiction of human nature
Things to Come (1936)
Building a Scientific Utopia
From a script by H.G. Wells, this comes with a visionary sweep that depicts the building of a scientific utopia but equally suffers from dull and heavy-handed polemical dialogue
Here Alone (2016)
Survival After a Plague Outbreak/Social Collapse
Beautifully filmed, intimate work about a woman’s attempts to eke out survival in the woods in the aftermath of an unspecified apocalypse
Perfect Sense (2011)
World Where People Start Losing Their Sensory Perceptions
Remarkable film set in a world where people start to progressively lose each of their senses. Much of the film works as a character drama rather than a catastrophe film but its portrait of how the world tries to cope in the aftermath of the loss of another sense makes for top-notch science-fiction
Strange Days (1995)
Near Future Social Disorder/The Millennium/Virtual Memories
A Kathryn Bigelow directed Cyberpunk film scripted by James Cameron concerning an illicit technology that can replay memories. This offers a powerful vision of a socially divided L.A. on the eve of the millennium
The Incident (2011)
Trapped in an Asylum for the Criminally Insane During a Powercut
From an early script by S. Craig Zahler, this is an incredibly brutal and harrowing work about a group of cooks trapped inside an asylum for the criminally insane during a power cut
Leave the World Behind (2023)
Catastrophe and Social Collapse
A strong and dramatic work about a sudden catastrophe that occurs when the world’s internet and cellular system are shut off. Produced by no less than former US President Barack Obama
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
The End of the World
Classic British end of the world movie that presents with enormous conviction a fundamentally implausible scenario in which nuclear tests tilt the Earth off its axis causing a massive heatwave and the attempts to right it
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Post-Holocaust/Zombie Outbreak
I was cautious about hailing 28 Days Later as a modern classic; this sequel is in fact a much better film. Newcomer director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo draws it out into a series of superbly sustained suspense sequences
Carriers (2009)
Countrywide Epidemic/Social Collapse and Harsh Survival
Set in the midst of a deadly infection that has wiped most of the country out, the film is extremely well written, focusing on harsh moral choices that the characters must make. Chris Pine is cast as a less-than-heroic lead
Cargo (2017)
Australian Outback Zombie Film
An Australian effort that feels like a zombie movie version of Walkabout with an infected Martin Freeman wandering the Outback searching for someone to care for his infant daughter before he succumbs
Miracle Mile (1988)
Impending Nuclear Strike on L.A. Comedy
Quirky offbeat comedy in which Anthony Edwards picks up a ringing phone at a diner and the call warns that a nuclear strike is about to hit L.A. in 50 minutes during which he tries to find his lady love as the city descends into chaos all around from what may have been a prank call
World War Z (2013)
Zombie Apocalypse
You wonder what this can do with such an overworked genre as the zombie apocalypse. It is not a film that reinvents the wheel for the genre but spins the basics out into an exciting, international locale hopping survival story
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part II (2013)
Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
The second of the two-part animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s classic graphic novel. The film is staged as a series of epic confrontations between iconic DC characters and written with a dark bite to emerge much more satisfying than the first part
Young Ones (2014)
Drought-Ridden Future
Not to be confused with the cult British comedy series, the anonymous title disguises an excellent film about a drought-ridden future. Less another Mad Max-inspired film than an SF version of There Will Be Blood that becomes a study in greed, ambition and the fight for resource control
The Last Days (2013)
Worldwide Plague of Agoraphobia
A fascinating Spanish film about a worldwide apocalypse created by a plague that makes the entire population mortally afraid of going out of doors
Into the Forest (2015)
Catastrophic Worldwide Powercut
Modest story about a catastrophic countrywide powercut – rather than depicting a widespread apocalypse, the film is a character-driven piece focused around two sisters living on their own at a cabin in the woods
It’s a Disaster (2012)
End of the World Comedy
Imagine This is The End with four hipster couples instead of a bunch of Hollywood celebrities barricaded in a house. A likeable, if never side-splitting, End of the World comedy with a finely tuned ensemble cast
Maggie (2015)
Zombie Film
If the phrase ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger zombie film’ doesn’t get you excited, you’re visiting the wrong site. This is surprisingly good, the complete opposite of anything we expect of Schwarzenegger or a zombie film
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Zombies
George Romero produces a remake of his groundbreaking zombie film. This adheres closely to the original but manages to modernise it in interesting ways
Quatermass (1979)
Alien Megalithic Artefacts Reactivated
The fourth and final of Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass stores, which shows the professor as an old man in decaying future Britain trying to deal with an alien force manifest through ancient megaliths. A surprisingly bleak and cynical end to the saga but still with the greatness of Kneale’s writing
Zombie Fight Club (2014)
Zombie Outbreak
It is mind-boggling to think how you could combine zombies with Fight Club, the classic anti-capitalist manifesto about brawling clubs and split personality … Such an idea proves too challenging for this Taiwanese effort but we do get a solid zombie version of The Raid
Gas; or It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It (1970)
Hippie Post-Holocaust/Gonzo Satire
Satiric Roger Corman film in which a gas kills everyone in the world over the age of 25. Corman indulges his droll and surreal sense of humour in what amounts to a parody of his own films
How It Ends (2018)
Mysterious Catastrophe/Journey Across an Anarchic Countryside
Concerning a catastrophe of never-explained nature, this follows two men – Theo James and a bad-ass Forest Whitaker – across a landscape where society is visibly collapsing
We Bury the Dead (2024)
Zombie Film
The zombie film underwent a major revival in the 2000s but by the mid-2020s a horde of low-budget copycats has exhausted most creative possibilities. This shows there is still some originality to be found
Escape from L.A. (1996)
Action/Los Angeles as a Future Prison
John Carpenter’s sequel to Escape from New York falls too much in the shadow of its predecessor, nevertheless has some effective moments of its own, with Carpenter in particular creating a satiric fundamentalist future
Y2K (2024)
The Y2K Bug/Machines Amok
Film that imagines what might have happened if the Y2K Bug had occurred and resulted in a machine revolution
Warm Bodies (2013)
Zombie Romantic Comedy
The idea of a Twilight copy where the lead male is a zombie seems an utterly lame idea before one sat down to watch this. That said, the film manages to make its peculiarly incongruous mix of teen romantic film, zombie film and comedy work for it
Blood Quantum (2019)
American Indians vs Zombies
This had me sold from its premise of American Indians vs zombies. Made by Canadian First Nations people, this features an Indian reservation as the last refuge against the zombie apocalypse
The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells (2001)
Anthology of H.G. Wells Stories/TV Mini-Series
TV mini-series that adapts six less well known short stories by H.G. Wells into an anthology with Wells as the central character. A couple of good stories, some that never hit the mark
Infeccion (2019)
Venezuelan Zombie Film
A zombie film from Venezuela in which a lone doctor struggles to survive after a train of mutated rabies spreads throughout the countryside. A solid entry in the genre.
Rich Flu (2024)
Plague That Kills Rich People
This comes with a wonderfully satiric idea of a plague that kills the world’s wealthiest people
Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End (2024)
Zombie Outbreak
Big-budgeted Spanish-made zombie film based on a best-selling book. Very much a post-Covid depiction of the zombie apocalypse, this rehashes the familiar basics capably well
The Life of Chuck (2024)
Stephen King Adaptation
A Mike Flanagan adaptation of a Stephen King story, this received a great deal of acclaim, but comes with a very peculiar story structure that opens out into a series of unfolding revelations
Rollover (1981)
Western Economic Collapse
Jane Fonda and Kris Kristofferson star in a big-budget banking thriller where the US faces economic collapses
Viral (2016)
Plague Outbreak/Zombie Parasites
Effort from the near-ubiquitous Blumhouse that is constantly confounding expectations – a plague outbreak drama but not quite, a zombie film but not quite. In the end, not a great or groundbreaking film but certainly a modest one that takes things in some interesting and original directions
Only (2019)
Plague That Has Killed All Women
A film made for the era of Coronavirus crisis if there ever was one. This concerns a worldwide plague that kills all women where Freida Pinto may be the left woman left alive. What is uncannily predictive is the film’s images of empty streets and supermarket shelves, people huddled in quarantine and social distancing
Goodbye World (2013)
Collapse of Civilisation
Another End of the World film concerning the collapse of society as a group of friends gather. Feels more like a variant on The Big Chill than a film about the end of everything but is not without its moments
It Comes At Night (2017)
Plague Outbreak/Fallout Shelter Drama
Audiences were confused by a title and promotion that led them to expect a horror film. This isn’t a horror film but a plague outbreak/fallout shelter drama – at which it is an okay offering but nothing standout
Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014)
Zombie Apocalypse
Australian zombie film that comes with a hyperactive fierceness and energy that reminds of early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. On the minus side, the zombie genre is now so creatively strip-mined that the film never offers anything original
Radioflash (2019)
Socially Catastrophic EMP Burst
Film in which the entire US Western seaboard falls into social chaos after being hit an EMP burst focusing on one girl’s journey to safety across anarchic territory
Voyagers (2021)
Generation Ship Descends Into Chaos
The promising idea of a generation ship story, although you realise soon in that this has been conceived as no more than Lord of the Flies in space
Revelation Road: The Sea of Glass and Fire (2013)
The Biblical Rapture
Not wishing to insult anyone’s beliefs but Christian cinema has produced some really bad films. With such lowered expectations, this Rapture film approaches halfway watchable with a story that somewhat resembles Mad Max 1 about a biker seeking vengeance against a decent man
Riot Girls (2019)
Girlfriends in the Aftermath of a Plague That Has Killed All Adults
A plague has killed off all adults. In the ruins, two girlfriends venture into the domain ruled by the tyrannical football jocks to rescue one’s brother
Transcendence (2014)
Scientist's Mind Uploaded Into a Machine
A film that bites off some Big Ideas from the transhumanist movement – A.I., nanotechnology, and especially Mind Upload – and fails to do anything with them except for reach for hoary cliches of Frankenstein science. A film that, despite its self-importance, ends up as only a better budgeted version of The Lawnmower Man
Tomorrow When the War Began (2010)
Australia Invaded/Teenagers Fight Back
An Australian version of Red Dawn – prettily mounted but feels more like Dawson’s Creek Goes to War than it has does a realistic war film
Time of the Wolf (2003)
Social Collapse
Michael Haneke has risen to great acclaim in recent years; this is one of his earlier works – a slow Tarkovsky-esque work that seems set in a future that is collapsing at the edges. Haneke is a fascinating talent but this is a bit too vague and well free of anything actually happening for me
Pulse 2 (2008)
Soul-Sucking Creatures from the Internet
This was the first of two sequels to the Wes Craven scripted Pulse, the English language version of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s intensely spooky film about ghosts from the internet
Aftershock (2012)
Brutalities in the Aftermath of an Earthquake
Film in which Eli Roth does everything else except direct. Set in the aftermath of a Chilean earthquake, this feels more like a disaster movie than the horror film it is awkwardly squeezed into being
The People Who Own the Dark (1976)
Nuclear War Outbreak
Spanish film about a group of orgiasts at a villa who survive a nuclear explosion outside but are then held at siege from an attack by blinded villagers
How I Live Now (2013)
England Invaded/Outbreak of Nuclear War
While the title suggests a self-help manual about someone going to live off the land, this depicts an imaginary invasion of England similar to Red Dawn having been pitched as a Young Adult work
Antisocial (2013)
Zombie Apocalypse Via Social Media
A zombie apocalypse that occurs via social networking sites??? To the film’s credit, it makes such a wacky idea plausible but the low-budget leads to a zombie apocalypse that mostly occurs off-stage
Before the Fire (2020)
Countrywide Pandemic
Released in March 2020 just before the arrival of Covid-19, this makes an uncanny prediction about the US being affected by a nationwide pandemic
Black Moon (1975)
French New Wave Surrealism
Louis Malle’s one and only venture into the French New Wave – a baffling work set around social collapse as a young girl wanders a farmhouse encountering unicorns, talking animals and various surreal happenings
Bronx Warriors II (1983)
Future Gang Warfare
Enzo G. Castellari’s sequel to his Escape from New York ripoff 1990: The Bronx Warriors and a most more polished and entertaining B action movie
Bunker Palace Hotel (1989)
Near-Future Civil War
The first film from Enki Bilal set in a decaying luxury bunker where the elite of the future take shelter from a civil war. A film that creates a fascinating world – in which nothing interesting ends up happening
Chrysalis (2008)
Ray Bradbury Adaptation/Scientist Goes into a Chrysalis
An adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story set in an environmentally collapsed future as scientists at a research station debate over what to do when one of their colleagues transforms into a chrysalis
Curse of the Blind Dead (2020)
Blind Knights Templar Zombies
A revival of the popular 1970s Blind Dead series about Knights Templar zombies. In this era of zombie films homages and remakes, it is a surprise nobody has thought to do so before
Darkest Day (2015)
The Zombie Apocalypse
An ambitious low-budget variant on 28 Days Later featuring some excellent effects, where a man wakes up with amnesia to find zombies have overrun society
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Zombies
Zack Snyder debuts with a remake of the cult George Romero film. While this has a bigger budget, it is missing is the satire and gore-drenched effects that made the original memorable. This inspired the mid-2000s zombie film revival
The Day of the Triffids (2009)
The Downfall of Civilisation/Lethal Plants Amok
Disappointing tv mini-series remake of the John Wyndham novel about England overrun by killer plants. This abandons most of the book’s sociological portrait for cliche melodramatics
The End We Start From (2023)
England Devastated by Catastrophic Flooding
Jodie Comer is a new mother who travels through an England that has been devastated by catastrophic flooding. Not dissimilar to The Road but less bleak
Greenland (2020)
Disaster Movie/Comet on a Collision Course with the Earth
There seems something redundant in 2021 with the world in the grip of a very real apocalypse about watching an old-fashioned mass destruction disaster movie about an oncoming comet impact
The Forever Purge (2021)
Social Collapse of the USA
In this, the fifth film in The Purge series, the scenario becomes even more interestingly political, becoming a satiric take on MAGA America and the Capitol Riots
Isolation (2021)
Anthology of Covid Lockdown Horror Stories
Ten different filmmakers from around the world combine to make an anthology of eight horror stories set during the Covid lockdown
Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
Nuclear War/Ruthless Survivalism
A film about the outbreak of nuclear war directed by actor Ray Milland. What takes you aback is the naked liberatarian fantasy that Milland engages in, arguing in favour of a brutal ruthlessness in the name of survival
Against the Dark (2009)
Zombie Action Film
Steven Seagal tries to extend his career by taking on the zombie film. However, this is routine on all levels, although to its advantage Seagal is not on screen much
Memoirs of a Survivor (1981)
Decayed Future
Adaptation of a Doris Lessing novel set in a collapsing future England. Nicely portrayed but crytpically surreal touches end up baffling
The Day of the Triffids (1962)
The Downfall of Civilisation/Alien Plant Invasion
The first film version of John Wyndham’s novel about a catastrophe that renders most of the population blind and leaves them prey to lethal plants. This is killed by variable effects and the abandonment of much of the book
Alien Uprising (2012)
Alien Invasion
Low-budget British alien invasion film shot in a hyperkinetic style using as many social collapse cliches as possible. Jean-Claude Van Damme turns up to deliver explanations for everything
Atlas Shrugged III: Who is John Galt? (2014)
Libertarian Political Fantasy/Ayn Rand Adaptation
The third of the trilogy of films adapted from Ayn Rand’s absurd fantasy wherein the leaders of the business world decide to go on strike because they don’t feel appreciated enough
1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982)
Future Gang Warfare
An Italian exploitation film about gangs fighting in the ruins of a future New York. Director Enzo G. Catsellari has ripped off both Escape from New York and The Warriors
Red Dawn (1984)
Communist Invasion of the USA
Ridiculous red-blooded, flag-waving film in which the Soviets invade the USA and a group of high-school teenagers maintain a lone guerilla campaign