Sitting at number one on our list is one of the rarest kind of cinematic armageddon scenarios: the one where unstoppable monsters from out of the worst nightmares rise up from the depths and devour and step on the entire human race, without fear or favour, murdering all of us in a freakish carnival of insane, slobbering violence. Sometimes, the monsters are alien in nature, as in Cloverfield, many of the antagonists from the original Godzilla movies, and Pacific Rim. Lovecrafts most terrifying creations are huge, ancient godmonsters from beyond space, and the awful, insane gibbering Things that devour the earth at the end of In The Mouth Of Madness are from some other plane of existence. On occasion, theyre mutations caused by human experimentation or hazardous waste, where at least the protagonists of the films have the minor satisfaction of knowing that the human race contributed in some small way to the 400 foot tall deathmonster that steps on their house. Then theres the really scary ones the ones that owned the earth before humanity evolved enough to think it could squat on their land. In Reign Of Fire, sleeping hordes of dragons are disturbed, hibernating (after having burned the dinosaurs) until the earth repopulates enough to give them a decent meal. In The Cabin In The Woods, humanity fails to placate the sleeping old gods of the earth, who rise again and, its implied, murder all of them during the end credits of the film while Trent Reznor screams that this isnt meant to last. Theres something somewhat understandable about alien things coming here to take our world, no matter how awesomely gigantic and madness-inducing they are. Theres even something vaguely sympathetic about skyscraper-sized mutated freaks of nature coming back to tear their creators a new one. But our old landlords coming home and evicting all of mankind with extreme prejudice, just because they were there first and were in the way? Thats the most brutal an apocalypse has ever been. Whats your favourite movie about the end of the world? Have we covered it here, or do you have an eleventh point for us? Tell us all about it in the comments!
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
