Genre Studies Essay Post Apocalyptic Films and Social Anxiety Elizabeth Cooper 203656

Post Apocalyptic Films are a reflection of the anxieties of their context. In our current cinema climate, apocalypse films as a genre are one of the few remaining sure-fire box office hits. As a branch of science-fiction, these films speak of their contextual societies, specifically, their anxieties. By tracing apocalypse films from their inception, through the 1950s, Late Cold War era, beginning of the 21st century and beyond, we can see the specific anxieties of the relevant eras displayed in these films. This makes them key as a sociological tool as well as a cultural study. In order to understand the relevance of apocalypse films, we must understand what categorizes them. For the purpose of this study, post apocalyptic films and zombie films, will also be known as apocalypse films. These films tend to spring up across genres, from the childrens film Wall.E (2008) to dystopic action Book of Eli (2010), making it one of the most diverse subgenres of film. The key defining characteristic of an apocalypse film, across any genre, is the event of the apocalypse which is the event involving destruction of the world or humanity to a catastrophic level. These apocalyptic events can range between world wars as in The Road (2009), natural disasters such as 2012 (2009) and global health outbreaks like I am Legend (2007). They also range in outcome as outlined by Sanes (2013) from decaying, urban, overpopulated criminal environments, to hyper technology that enslaves people and even the post-holocaust which sees the world have to replay the tape of history with a return to primitivism. Whilst the post-holocaust is currently the most popular of the outcomes of an apocalypse in current cinema,

the range of situations and subgenres shows the difficulty in specifically defining the apocalypse film. Whilst the genre is difficult to define, it shares many characteristics of science-fiction which make it easier to understand. Both are futuristic, both question human nature and both comment on society. It is this aspect of post apocalyptic films that is important for this study. As outlines by Grossman (2011), apocalypse films have a distinct role to play in social critique. The ability of apocalypse films to comment on societys anxieties makes it an important sociological study. By tracing the relationship between apocalypse films and their contextual anxieties from the first apocalypse film, to the 1950s, the late cold war era and the 21st century, we can greater understand and predict this paradigm. Apocalypse films started virtually as early as film itself. The 1916 Danish film The End of the World (also known as The Flaming Sword) was the first in the apocalypse genre and had a great impact on its context. The film involves a stray comet that causes extensive natural disasters and was considered in the science fiction/drama genre. The film was very well received, largely because it reflected the social anxiety about the close passing of Halleys Comet six years before (McManus, 2010). The passing comet inspired another apocalypse film, French film End of the World (1931) (also known as Paris After Dark) which also involved the impending disaster of a comet. As these were two of only three apocalypse films released before the 1950s, it shows the relationship between the comet anxiety in this era and the apocalypse films of that era. In this way, we can begin to see a

link between the anxieties of the specific release era of an apocalypse film and the apocalypse event displayed in the film itself. Having come from the 1916-1949 era with only three apocalypse films, the 1950s seven apocalypse films could be considered a significant rise. There were two significant social anxieties of the era expressed in the films of the 1950s: the fear of a cataclysmic human war and the fear of alien wars. Cataclysmic human wars is an anxiety that had followed humanity since the events of World War II, most referring to it as World War III. Given that WWII had only finished in 1945 and tension in post war Germany between Russia and the United States were beginning to heighten, it is fairly reasonable that films such as On the Beach (1959) became a reality. On The Beach is the first post-holocaust landscape, where the burnt out remains of atomic warfare have created a return to primitivism, which would become a staple of apocalypse films in later years. However, even more popular than the human wars, were the alien war apocalypse films. The 1950s showed a large number of alien invasion films from The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) to The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and the adaptation of H.G Wells novel War of the Worlds (1953). The Space Race of the cold war era between Russia and the United States culminating in the moon landing in 1969, showed a spike in space explorative technology and it led to a social anxiety of what was out there that played upon the collective public imagination (History.com, 2013). These alien invasion films combined the anxiety of space travel with the anxiety of a large scale war and thus reflect the society in which they were created.

Continuing from the 1950s rise, throughout the entire Cold War era (1947-1991), apocalypse films increased exponentially with every decade. The Cold War era heralded a new pessimism due to the inability of the wars in the era to ever truly end, which could explain the rise in the apocalypse film (McMahon, 2003). The new threat of atomic warfare also brought with it a new paranoia as the MAD (mutually assured destruction) principle of atomic warfare whereby countries would only be protected from nuclear bombs by having enough pointed at the enemy to ensure that both would be destroyed, created profound unrest (Gaddis, 2006). It also ignited the public imagination about a world after one of these apocalyptic events which filtered its way into film. Wolf-Meyer (2004) discusses the way in which Cold War apocalypse films generally have a coming of age of the post-apocalyptic world and this is where we get the stereotypical post apocalyptic world and, almost, a post apocalyptic routine of life. In this way, the cold war post apocalyptic films show most distinctly the relationship between the social anxiety of atomic warfare and the films themselves. In the Year 2889 (1967), Mad Max (1979) and documentary style The War Game (1965) all focus on this dystopic aftermath of human advancement and wars showing a distinct social anxiety about human destruction. However, the films tend to be more concerned with the post holocaust world of crime than the actual destruction of humanity, which was a new trend. Dr. Strangeloves (1964) flippant dealing with the end of humanity reflects this further and shows us that during the cold war era, the social concern was not so much with the threat of immediate death as much as being left alive and having to deal with the world that had been created.

Coming then from the Cold Wars end in 1991 to the beginning of the 21 st century, we have seen a significant spike in the number of apocalypse films being made. The number of apocalypse films made since the millennium have been more than the number made in the ninety years preceding it. The millennium bug, climate concerns, leaping technological advances, the Mayan 2012 apocalypse prediction and an overall growing scepticism about humanitys continuing existence has made these films flourish. Within this category of film, then, we have seen subgenres of apocalypse films emerge; zombie films, war films, and natural disaster films, each have their own conventions and relate to specific social anxieties. Zombie films have become rampant in the 21st century film industry. From comedic interpretations like Zombieland (2009) to the grotesque horror Dawn of the Dead (2004), the zombie has become a cultural icon and deserving of its own genre of film. It has the apocalypse conventions of the apocalypse event, in this case being the outbreak of the zombie infection, the questioning of humanity, both through its zombies and its remaining humans and it comments on the nature of society and therefore is important in any study of apocalypse films. It also shares many feature with the 1950s alien invasion films and so fits in well in the grand scope of apocalypse films. As discussed by Dendle (2007), the zombie film is a direct barometer of cultural anxiety and as social anxiety increases, the number of zombie films does too. Zombie films tend to express two major anxiety concerns; the fear of hyper consumerism and the fear of unstoppable germs. As examined in the opening sequence of Warm Bodies (2013), the zombie fear has become, of late, a metaphor for the unresponsive, emotionally

plateaued beings of current western society, a result, it proposes, of the hyper consumerism of the western world. The fear of humanity becoming zombiesque as a result of television and the internet has manifested itself in the zombie creature; a being without feelings or communicative abilities. The other fear examined is that of spreading infections that cannot be understood. Zombies are almost exclusively created through a virus that is transmitted either through air or bite in films such as 28 Days Later (2002), which creates monsters. In these films, one of the primary goals is to find a cure, which becomes the cause greater even than staying alive. Whilst the HIV virus scare has been around for decades, the mutation of the super virus and the frequent flu epidemics have created a health anxiety across the globe. It seems that whilst we have become more medically advanced, diseases are running out of our control, which has created this anxiety of the super virus that turns us into demons. The second primary category of prominent apocalypse film in our context is the holocaust-style war film. Since the cold war, the fascination with a postatomic warfare world has resulted in several barren, greying, decaying landscapes dominating the war apocalypse films. The Book of Eli (2010) and The Road (2009) both examine these post-holocaust worlds where rape, cannibalism, water and food shortage and general misery pervade. These films propose that the post-apocalypse world is far worse than having died. Death, in these films, is a complicated mixture of dreaded event and relief and it shows us the anxiety of our current context over a ruined world. In this way, both the war and zombie categories of apocalypse film reflect the current societal anxieties.

Finally, the natural disaster apocalypse film similarly reflects current societal anxieties through their portrayal of a crumbling worlds with humanity at the mercy of the natural world. 2012 (2009) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004) both display a genuine concern over the lack of control humanity has over its natural environment. Huge earthquakes, tsunamis and climate changes are common in this type of apocalypse film and it becomes a struggle of humanity versus its natural environment. Obviously, this trend stems back to apocalypse films roots in 1916, however, the vast number of natural disaster films in recent years suggests a distinct rise in anxiety about the state of the natural world. The recent awareness of climate change, coupled with the rise in natural disasters (particularly hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis) has created a feeling that despite our desperate attempts to control our environment we are, in fact at its mercy (Block, 2013). The possibility of rising sea levels and even greater, catastrophic storms has made humanity very aware of its fragility in the face of the natural world. It is this anxiety that is reflected in the natural disaster apocalypse film, and this furthers the case for apocalypse films as barometers of social anxiety. Finally, then, the question must be considered, where does the most recent apocalypse films predict our anxieties will head? Aston & Wallis (2013) discuss a recent rise in the optimism levels of apocalypse films. They show that whilst since 9/11 the apocalypse seems to have almost been deserved by humanity in these films, there is also a growing optimism about humanitys ability to survive and preserve a glimmer of hope despite the crises. This, they

attribute, to the Obama administration as a light at the end of the tunnel and argue that his term has given people hope. Hoad (2013) disagrees, he points to the positive nature of the postapocalyptic state expressed in Zombieland (2009), Wall.E (2008) and This is the End (2013) as an indication that humanity believes that the changes forced upon them as a result of an apocalypse will actually, eventually, benefit the world. As global populations are reaching breaking point, displaced people are becoming a primary concern and oil and water shortage are seen to be the biggest issues facing the next generation, perhaps humanity secretly hopes that most of its population will be killed off to make living easier for the remaining. Whilst this paints a fairly bleak picture of humanity, it also shows the ability of these apocalypse films to register and display the anxieties of a context. Therefore, through the lens of apocalypse films, we can sociologically study the primary anxieties of any given era. Whilst the apocalypse films is difficult to classify, its ability to cross several genres with similar themes speaks to its universality, which makes it particularly useful in studying human nature and human concerns.

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