Darwin’s Nightmare (2004)

Post-apocalyptic wastelands, with the added presence of some great evil – zombie, FBI task force, deadly pandemic – are terrifying, yes, but reality makes a nice pillow to lay your fears on. That’s why the most terrifying disasters to watch are the ones that are already in motion.
In 2004, Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper brought us Darwin’s Nightmare, a documentary of the eco-disaster in Tanzania brought on by the Nile perch, a predatory fish bred there to sell in Western Europe. The species has wiped out most of the marine life in the area, devastating the country’s economy and ecosystem. The starving men and women have no choice but to feed off of the carcasses discarded from the fisheries.
Next: War of the Worlds (2005)
War of the Worlds (2005)

We know the biggest fears are those of the unknown and whether we like to imagine them as little green men or menacing, lizard-like creatures with razor sharp teeth, no one has a clue what life forms from the far reaches of space are like. In Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, we get a glimpse that is more seek and destroy than “We come in peace.”
Based on H.G. Wells’ book of the same name, WotW exploits our most chilling sci-fi fears: an all out war with an alien race. The most frightening aspect of the story isn’t that tripod-steering aliens are out to destroy Tom Cruise, it’s the story’s potential to become a truth.
Next: The Towering Inferno (1974)















