10 Utterly Bleak Post Apocalyptic Movie Worlds

As befits New Zealand's status as Australia's more low key neighbour, this Kiwi take on the post-apocalyptic world has none of the sound and fury of Mad Max. As the title would suggest, The Quiet Earth is a post-apocalypse world of altogether more empty tranquility. Not that this makes it any less bleak. In fact, quite the opposite.

Part of the "last man on Earth" sub-genre of apocalypse movies (alongside the many versions of I Am Legend), The Quiet Earth sees an experimental global energy solution wipe out virtually all of mankind. Our hero only survives because he was trying to commit suicide at the same time. It's that kind of cheery armageddon story.

Even alongside other "last man" stories, The Quiet Earth (which does eventually give it's "sole survivor" someone to share his misery) is a bleak one.

Few post-apocalyptic movies emphasise quite so much the mental deterioration of being all alone in a destroyed world. In an action-packed dystopia the characters are simply too busy to wallow in their slow descent into Hitler cardboard cutout madness. Not so in The Quiet Earth.