Dystopian, weird, post-apocalyptic media

Hi, I know we've had similar topics, but I'm always on the look-out for dystopian, post-apocalyptic, surreal, mind-bending, quirky, or bizarre speculative, sci-fi, or fantasy books and films.  I seem to like a lot of films about genetic engineering, cloning....

Probably my favourite writer is Philip K. Dick, and I've read most everything of his that I could get my hand on.  I guess Orwell (1984), and films such as Brazil and A Clockwork Orange set the stage for my passion whilst a teen.  I also love Vonnegut.  Some of my favourite modern novels that I've read over the last few years are The Road (Cormac McCarthy), Blindness, Oryx and Crake and it's follow-up (Margaret Atwood), Blindness (Jose Saramago), and Never Let  Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro).

I think my favourite film of the last few years is The Bothersome Man --  a Norwegian black comedy film about a superficial Ikea-like world.  Transfer (Germany) is another of my modern favourite films.

I've seen and read a great deal, and wouldn't try to list much of what I've seen.   Just throw out your favourites inspired by this rather vague, or perhaps too open, opening post.  I know a lot of the older ones (be they classic or not so classic, I have a particular thing for Zardoz, but also ones like A Boy and His Dog and David Cronenberg films) so try to mention some fairly recent ones as well.

In film, this was  a list I found rather helpful before (Visioneers I liked, Idiocracy not so much): http://www.imdb.com/list/kMPQ_BhJL5k/

And this: http://www.listal.com/list/best-weird-movies

And this (though I've seem most of them): http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/the-top-50-dystopian-movies-of-all-time/

And many others.  I usually read more than watch films these days, but looking for both. 

Oh, one films that I'm on the look-out for now is Carre Blanc (2011).  I'm used to watching a lot of art house/ international cinema.


Edited by Logan - June 07 2013 at 12:59

Try thiz guy, his first serirs is fantasy, but bleak amd realy intersting, about gods, gisnts and peoplwøe whos only head is still alive

try his dystopisn, sci-fi seroes starting with, Lushons Plates, anout a european contineny ruled by an islamic califate

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._Andreas_Bull-Hansen

Edited by aginor - June 07 2013 at 13:13

HolyMoly wrote: The Firesign Theatre's albums were often set in some surreal parallel dystopia.  Even as comedy albums, the best of them are as deep and rewarding as a good novel, and sometimes even harder to untangle the story and fully understand what's going on.  Listen to "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers" carefully in a dark room and it'll take you out there.

Thanks, Steve.  Heard of the Fireside Theatre before, and might have haerd one of those before as a kid.  A friend's dad had a lot of comedy albums -- Monty Python, Bill Cosby etc.  Will look for those.

aginor wrote: Try thiz guy, his first serirs is fantasy, but bleak amd realy intersting, about gods, gisnts and peoplwøe whos only head is still alive try his dystopisn, sci-fi seroes starting with, Lushons Plates, anout a european contineny ruled by an islamic califate http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._Andreas_Bull-Hansen

Sounds intersting, thanks.  Incidentally, the last movie I watched was from Norway -- Trollhunter (Trolljegeren).

Themroc from 1973, a French film made on a low budget with no intelligible dialog, It tells the story of a blue collar worker who rebels against modernity by regressing into an urban troglodyte who demolishes his urban apartment into an improvised cave. The movie's scenes of incest and cannibalism earned it's adults-only ratings. I loved it, but then I'm openly weirdo....

ExittheLemming wrote: Themroc from 1973, a French film made on a low budget with no intelligible dialog, It tells the story of a blue collar worker who rebels against modernity by regressing into an urban troglodyte who demolishes his urban apartment into an improvised cave. The movie's scenes of incest and cannibalism earned it's adults-only ratings. I loved it, but then I'm openly weirdo....

sounds heavy. Cool.

If you're okay with watching anime, Texhnolyze is a great series with dystopian/cyber punk/post-apocalyptic themes and is very dark and surreal.

A Person wrote: If you're okay with watching anime, Texhnolyze is a great series with dystopian/cyber punk/post-apocalyptic themes and is very dark and surreal.

Seconding this. One of the few shows on myanimelist that I have rated as 10/10. The entire series is told in a minimalist tone set in a decaying city that looks like it belongs in the 50's but has bits of advanced technology lying around.

Threads is definitely something you should watch, though only part of it is about post apocalyptic, the rest is how the apocolypse happens. Basically, it was the british version of 'the day after' with all the hollywood touches and any rays of hope scrubbed clean. It looks at the effects of a nuclear bomb on a small english town in the middle of a cold war WWIII. At times a documentary like narrator will describe part of the story. It's up on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg




Edited by Evangelion2014 - June 07 2013 at 21:22

^Me too. Definitely want to watch it but need to be in the right frame of mind.


I don't know that there is much dystopian fiction that is more dystopic than most peoples' realities at this point.

dr wu23 wrote: Sounds like you have a good handle on the genre but I really liked the Gene Wolfe; Shadow of the Torturer series, Books Of The New Sun....set far in the future.

Tapfret wrote: ^Me too. Definitely want to watch it but need to be in the right frame of mind. I don't know that there is much dystopian fiction that is more dystopic than most peoples' realities at this point. dr wu23 wrote: Sounds like you have a good handle on the genre but I really liked the Gene Wolfe; Shadow of the Torturer series, Books Of The New Sun....set far in the future. A good friend of mine (who is incidentally on his death bed at the moment) gave me the first in the series to read. I found it tedious and put it down about halfway through. But that was in my flippant 20's. Might try it again.

dr wu23 wrote: Tapfret wrote: ^Me too. Definitely want to watch it but need to be in the right frame of mind. I don't know that there is much dystopian fiction that is more dystopic than most peoples' realities at this point. dr wu23 wrote: Sounds like you have a good handle on the genre but I really liked the Gene Wolfe; Shadow of the Torturer series, Books Of The New Sun....set far in the future. A good friend of mine (who is incidentally on his death bed at the moment) gave me the first in the series to read. I found it tedious and put it down about halfway through. But that was in my flippant 20's. Might try it again.   Give it another try...it takes a while for him to set up the premise and characters....and there are others in the series.

Its funny how a thing that I demand in a movie, character development, wears me out in a book. *sigh* 21st century attention span.