From the blockbuster "I am a legend" to the intimate "The Battery", what are the post-apocalyptic feature films to discover or watch again on Amazon Prime?
Screenshot I'm a legend
Before Hunger Games and after Constantine, director Francis Lawrence once again rubs shoulders with an adaptation with Je suis une légende. This post-apocalyptic anticipation film is taken from the novel by Richard Matheson, flagship author of science fiction and horror and screenwriter notably for Roger Corman (The Fall of the Usher house) and Terence Fisher (The Virgins of Satan). A writer who has continued to nourish genre cinema and who has been adapted many times, with works like The Man Who Shrinks by Jack Arnold and The Box by Richard Kelly.
In I am a legend, Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a high-level scientist mysteriously immune to a terrifying virus that has ravaged the planet. Walking the streets of New York, of which he is the last survivor, he broadcasts radio messages every day in the hope of finding other survivors. But Neville is not entirely alone since "Infected", victims of the virus transformed into mutants, prowl ... If the film departs greatly from the original novel, I am a legend is worth for its twilight atmosphere and his anxiety-provoking vision of the Big Apple completely emptied of its inhabitants and where nature has taken back its rights.
The Battery
The Battery film, The Battery follows two baseball players on their road trip across the United States, as the world is devastated and invaded by the undead. This feature film is the work of Jeremy Gardner, jack of all trades who is as much behind as in front of the camera: in addition to being one of the interpreters, he is also the director, the scriptwriter and the producer .
Buddy-film with a background of post-apocalyptic atmosphere, The Battery takes the opposite view of productions of the genre. Minimalist and contemplative, this indie film turns its low budget ($ 6000!) To its advantage by focusing above all on its very endearing characters and by showing originality and ingenuity. Never released for cinema in France but selected in several festivals, The Battery will appeal to spectators who are looking for a work that goes beyond the beaten track.
Doomsday
After the werewolves of Dog Soldiers and the closed door The Descent, Neil Marshall rubs the sub-genre of the post-apocalyptic film with Doomsday. Scotland has become a barbaric and violent no man's land, cut off from the rest of the world to stem an epidemic caused by a virus. But when 30 years later, the same virus reappears in the heart of London, a shock commando leaves on a suicide mission to search for a possible vaccine in this territory left in the hands of rival gangs.
Doomsday is a maelstrom with multiple influences, from New York 1997 to Mad Max via 28 days later, all with a touch of Italian bis. An improbable mixture for a tribute to a noisy and deviant cinema which will not be unanimous but whose efficiency and generosity cannot be denied. An uninhibited B series worthy of those found on the shelves of video clubs.
Alone on Earth
Unpublished in French cinemas, Seul sur Terre stages, like Je suis une légende or Le Monde, la flesh et le diable, the last survivor on Earth following a mysterious catastrophe which decimated the humanity. While he remained in the small deserted town where he was employed at the library, his isolation was thwarted by the arrival of a young woman.
Bringing together Elle Fanning and Peter Dinklage in front of the camera of Reed Morano (to whom we owe some episodes of The Handmaid's Tale: the scarlet servant), Alone on Earth is a minimalist film which shines above all by its duet of actors, its photography and its mysterious hero who thrives in this end of the world atmosphere. Here, no monster, this drama which takes its time leans above all on the loneliness of the characters.
