Post Apocalyptic Research: The Conventions of the Post Apocalyptic Genre

The Post Apocalyptic genre offers an unimaginable variety of ideas that directors, producers and writers can twist and control in their own ways in order to develop a storyline from the incredible amounts of diversity that the idea of living after the end of the world can give.

 

Consistently, producers are distributing films that suggest the idea of living alone after the end of the world and fighting for survival. At some point within these types of films, the main protagonist is also met with another survivor and is often shown to be surprised at the understanding that they are not the sole survivor of the apocalypse. This type of storyline has been shown in films such as I Am Legend.

 



 

Another convention of Post Apocalyptic films is the idea of Zombies roaming the earth for eternity and slowly destroying any form of humanity. This form of post apocalyptic film has been used in collaboration with the comedy genre; this is shown through films such as Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland.

 

 

 

Although it is commonly used in collaboration with the genre of Comedy, the zombie invasion idea is used in more serious matters as an idea or a possibility of what could potentially take place if a "Zombie Apocalypse" were to happen and follows characters as they search for cures or reasons as to why the outbreak has happened. Films that use this more serious interpretation of the idea include World War Z and the aforementioned I Am Legend.

 

 

 

Along with all of these ideas used through the genre of Post Apocalyptic films, there are more original and diverse ideas that don't involve the outbreak of a virus or sole survival. Films such as Children of Men showcase a more unique idea of apocalypse in the way that the film depicts the human race as slowly dying out and no children being born to replace the older generations.

 

 



 

 

 

This research has shown to me that the conventions of Post Apocalyptic films mainly follow a specific idea of survival but the way in which this can be done allows for limitless scenarios within the storylines of films and film writers can play around with these ideas and create completely unique storylines. It has also shown to me that these conventions can allow this genre to be used in collaboration with other genres due to the vast plethora of diverse ideas that can be given from the genre itself.