What Are You REALLY Scared Of When It Comes To Disaster Films?
From Titanic to Sharknado, we look back at some classic disaster films and work out the real fears they capitalised on.
Disaster Films: What Are We REALLY Scared Of?
Perhaps it isn’t storms we’re afraid of, but the storms inside our very souls.
Released in Australian cinemas this Thursday, Into the Storm is the latest in a long line of disaster films that aim to delight us with the murderous capabilities of our planet (make sure you see it — New York Magazine calls it, “one of the dumbest films you’ll see this year”!).
Whether the culprit is natural disaster, global pandemic, alien invasion or the inability to identify an iceberg in a timely manner, what disaster movies lack in subtle exposition they always make up for in widespread death and destruction (millions may die, but as long as that wide-eyed child with the teeny puffer jacket is saved HUMANITY WILL OVERCOME).
But what if it isn’t the disasters themselves that we’re really scared of? What if these movies reveal something deeper than a fear of flying cows and Dennis Quad yelling, “I WILL COME FOR YOU!”?
Sometimes an airborne shark is so much more than a flying fish; it’s the epitome of our existential angst.
Click through to see our list of classic disaster films, and the real fears they capitalised on.
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Words by Sinead Stubbins.