Fear Mongering in Hollywood: The Top 10 Movies
Though TNN is a relatively new blog I’ve come to the conclusion that many of my posts contain references to movies. For whatever reason, they are a great means of getting your point across. Therefore, this post will not beat around the bush-but will list my top 10 movies seemingly written, shot, and marketed to instill fear in its viewers. The subject matter of some of these movies is perhaps far fetched, but you won’t see any vampires or dreadlocked aliens on the list. The disasters in these movies are meant to be within the realm of possibility…to a degree.
If you have any other opinions or think my selections suck…by all means let me know.
#10. Volcano (1997)/Dante’s Peak (1997)
Alright this is cheating..but they are so simiar that who would know the difference. These two movies focused on a volcanic eruptions leading to much death and destruction in Los Angeles and a fictional town in the Northern Cascade Mountains, respectively. Neither of these movies are very good, but they do leave you with the impression that you could be walking down the street one day and step in a puddle of bubbling lava.
#9. Children of Men (2006)
This movie did not perform that well at the box office, but its plot was interesting, if not disturbing. It centers around a hazy, grey world-polluted to the point that women are no longer fertile. The human population is dwindling, and the hope of a coming across a pregnant woman is all that keeps people going. Yikes…
#8. Deep Impact (1998)/Armageddon (1998)
I’m sure you remember these two. These came out just 4 years after the widely publicised comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter-and stirred the imagination about our fate here on the big blue ball. I guess great minds think alike.
#7. Soylent Green (1973)
Its the year 2022 and the population of a starving, smog-stricken New York City has grown to 40 million. The green house effect runs rampant, and city infrastructure has collapsed. People subsist on little green wafers supposedly made from ocean vegetation….but as Charleton Heston famously says-”its people”.
#6. The Omega Man (1971)/I Am Legend (2008)
I saw I Am Legenda few months ago on DVD. I must say that being in the pharmaceutical industry I was skeptical about the plot-but gave it 3 stars out of 5 on my Netflix account. Essentially a remake of 1973’s The Omega Man, the film centers on a terrible plague caused by an inadvertently man-made biological weapon.
#5. The Day After (1983)
The only made for TV movie on the list, The Day Afteris clearly a result of the cold war-era American psyche. The gripping story is about the big bad Russians, and military escalation that leads to nuclear annhialation.
#4. Twister (1996)
While not immediately edivent as a fear-mongering movie, it does take certain liberties with reality for the purpose of drama and/or suspense. It works, as I liked the movie…despite the fact that Bill Paxton is in it. Its only ranked so high due to the numbers of people who have to legitimately worry about the possibility of tornadoes every day. Coincidentally-is there any correlation between the Bible belt and tornado alley? May want to look into that.
#3. The Terminator (1984)/The Matrix (1999)
Though these two movies tell different stories, they are both based on a similar theme-the battle between man and machine. Of course in both movies, the fallout is our own fault for having invented the things in the first place. Keep going along the same path and it becomes evident that the plots comment on humanity’s complacence and sloth in the creation of machines to do everything-with some awesome action sequences along the way.
#2. The Andromeda Strain (1971)/Outbreak (1995)
Another cheat, but both of these movies serve to depict humanity’s trials and tribulations with those pesky viruses. If you ask most people, they would probably say that the possibility of a worldwide viral outbreak leading to the devastation of the human race is not out of the realm of possibility-and its happened before.
#1. Jaws (1975)
This movie was made before I was born…and still had a big effect on me whenever swimming in the ocean. Spielberg’s classic tale is credited with much of the ill repute that sharks are burdened with today…though I am sure that Discovery’s “Shark Week” doesn’t help much either. Check out the trailer below.
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