Since the Cold War ended, end-of-the-world movies have kind of dried up as a subgenre. Me, I loved films like The Day After, the Mad Max movies, even rock-bottom cheapies like Def Con 4. Shouldn’t they be making a comeback after Sept. 11?
While we await the return of this particularly nihilistic and depressing film, we can always raid the vaults for oldies-but-goodies. I had never seen The Day the Earth Caught Fire until picking it up at La Boîte Noire last weekend. It’s a ’61 British entry (Michael Caine even has a cameo as a cop) in which the earth’s temperature is mysteriously changing. The scenes of impending horror are well handled, as people become quite freaked out about the fact that the earth is suddenly getting very, very hot indeed (yes, the spectre of global warming does come to mind). Soon enough, our intrepid reporter hero realizes that, due to some nuclear explosion experimentation, the earth has been thrust out of its orbit and is now spiralling towards the sun.

This is good clean apocalyptic fun. There are some especially good scenes that unfold as people decide to loot and party their way into oblivion. This film is both eerily prophetic and creepier than hell, and Edward Judd is fine as the illustrious reporter. :



—Matthew Hays