Underrated Post-Apocalyptic Movies You Need To Watch

There's a wide array of movies showcasing the end of the world and the surviving population's struggle to adapt to their new desolate environment. From zombie films to movies that show the Earth devastated by nuclear war and overrun by hyper-violent, leather-clad bikers, the post-apocalyptic genre has been explored in dozens upon dozens of films, TV shows, and video games over the years.

The subgenre's most noteworthy and popular examples — such as "The Road," "Escape from New York," and the "Mad Max" series — are extremely well known. But like any cinematic genre, there are bound to be a few films that unfortunately fail to gain significant attention from worldwide audiences and go unnoticed compared to other, more successful post-apocalyptic movies. They can't all be "Mad Max: Fury Road," after all. 

Here are 20 of the most criminally underappreciated post-apocalyptic films we can think of. It's definitely worth pointing your eyeballs in each of their directions for roughly two hours each.

While this Australian post-apocalyptic movie isn't part of the "Mad Max" series, "The Rover" closely resembles the overall story and world of "Mad Max." It's essentially a futuristic Western set in a dystopian Outback where law and order no longer exist and only the most ruthless survive.

It's in this nightmarish landscape that a stoic, no-nonsense drifter (Guy Pearce) has his car stolen by a gang of thieves. Using one of the thieves' brothers (Robert Pattinson) as a hostage and reluctant guide, the drifter travels across the Land Down Under to find his car and punish those responsible for its theft.

One of the first indie movies to feature Pattinson after the conclusion of the "Twilight" saga, "The Rover" is a wonderful, depressing thriller that mixes post-apocalypse vibes with more traditional genres like Westerns and buddy movies — although it's most certainly not a buddy comedy. Critics praised Pearce and Pattinson's performances, with the Los Angeles Times saying that the movie is "a most impressive piece of filmmaking, tense and unrelenting, that chills the blood as well as the soul."

Released on the tail end of the late-2000s zombie craze, "Stake Land" was a distinctly different sort of horror film for its era, going against the grain by folding zombie apocalypse tropes into a vampire film. It's also a movie that helped reestablish vampires as legitimately terrifying creatures, pushing back against their more romanticized depictions in the "Twilight" films.

After a vampiric plague ravages civilization, an orphaned teenage boy (Connor Paolo) accompanies an experienced vampire hunter (Nick Damici) to a supposed safe haven. Paolo's character, Martin, leans how to defend himself against the hordes of the undead along the way.

A little-known horror movie with a minimal budget of just $625,000, "Stake Land" was an unexpected success, taking some reviewers by surprise with its impressive quality. Roger Ebert called it "a good-looking, well-played and atmospheric apocalyptic vision," with the New York Times' Jeannette Catsoulis selecting the film as a NYT Critic's Pick.

An earlier mainstream post-apocalyptic film, 1959's "On the Beach" capitalizes on Cold War paranoia and fear of all-out nuclear conflict, imagining a world where the entire northern hemisphere has been rendered uninhabitable from extensive nuclear fallout. One of the last safe havens is Australia, where the crew of a U.S. Navy submarine deals with the loss of their loved ones as the winds threaten to push the fallout south, which would put the final nail in humanity's proverbial coffin. 

Directed by legendary filmmaker Stanley Kramer and starring Hollywood icons Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner, "On the Beach" is one of the most depressing movies on this list due to its downbeat ending and basis in reality. Released when fear of nuclear war was prevalent throughout much of the world, the film offers an unflinching look at what the true cost of World War III would be — mankind itself doomed to extinction.

"On the Beach" received a large number of positive reviews upon release, earning a BAFTA for best director, a Golden Globe for best original score, and Academy Award nominations for best music and best film editing. "The great merit of this picture ... is the fact that it carries a passionate conviction that man is worth saving, after all," wrote The New York Times.

Out of the two cinematic adaptations of John Wagner's Judge Dredd character who originally appeared in the pages of "2000 AD," "Dredd" is much more faithful than the critically panned 1995 film starring Sylvester Stallone.

In this 2012 dark superhero movie, Karl Urban slips on the domed helmet of the titular character — a law-enforcement officer who acts as judge, jury, and executioner in the dystopian police state of Mega-City One. Joined by a rookie new recruit (Olivia Thirlby), Dredd finds himself locked in a tall building with dozens of dangerous criminals and no hope of backup arriving any time soon.

Upon its release, "Dredd" received largely positive reviews, particularly for its action, visuals, performances, and general faithfulness to the comics. "Grim, gritty, and ultra-violent, 'Dredd' reinstates the somber brutality missing from the U.K. comic book icon's previous screen outing,'" said Variety. Unfortunately, the movie tanked at the box office, reportedly grossing around $41.5 million on a budget of $50 million.

Horror icon Vincent Price made no shortage of underrated movies throughout his career. His lesser-known hits include Roger Corman's "The Pit and the Pendulum" and the stylistic '70s cult classic "Theater of Blood." One of Price's most frequently overlooked but thoroughly enjoyable films is 1964's "The Last Man on Earth."

The first film adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel "I Am Legend," "The Last Man on Earth" stars Price as a scientist who is immune to a virus that has turned almost all of humanity into vampire-like creatures.

It takes a heck of a performance to single-handedly maintain an audience's interest for an hour and a half. Luckily, Price had talent to spare. While Price isn't the only actor in the movie, "The Last Man on Earth" still gives him a chance to flex his versatile acting muscles, playing a far more sympathetic role than the sinister figures he's typically associated with. The Austin Chronicle referred to "The Last Man on Earth" as "a chilling study of loneliness and an acting tour de force for Price as the last survivor of a dead race."

Set in a dystopian alternate history version of 1997, "Turbo Kid" follows The Kid (Munro Chambers) — a teenage comic book nerd and superhero — as he combats a tyrannical warlord (Michael Ironside) who uses a device to turn people into water.

An '80s-esque presentation of Earth following an apocalypse, "Turbo Kid" feels like a more lighthearted cross between "Escape from New York," the "Mad Max" series, "Kung Fury," and the music video for My Chemical Romance's "Na Na Na." It's a unique superhero movie that provides plenty of laughs and some first-rate action reminiscent of classic John Carpenter films, right down to the synth-heavy soundtrack. However, the movie isn't all fun and fancy; there are more than a few downbeat moments that reflect the more serious nature of its settings, such as the extreme and shocking violence and the cruelty certain individuals are capable of inflicting in the name of survival. Juxtaposed with such grim surroundings is the young superhero's quest to do right, as well as the story of his first love with another teenaged survivor-slash-hardcore comic book fan.

"'It's a satire to be sure, but one that embraces its retro origins with an exuberance that is as much fun as it is nostalgic," said the Austin Chronicle.

When "10 Cloverfield Lane" hit theaters in 2016, it was an unexpected surprise for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the film's ending revealed its connection to 2008's highly popular "Cloverfield," establishing a cinematic universe filled with colossal extraterrestrial monsters and setting the stage for 2018's "The Cloverfield Paradox." Aside from that, the movie also boasted some incredible performances from its relatively small cast, particularly stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman.

Winstead plays Michelle, a young woman who wakes up after a car accident and finds herself locked in a bunker with two men who inform her that the world has ended. As she gets used to her new life underground, Michelle slowly begins to grow suspicious of the actual status of the world outside, and whether the men's intentions are as honorable as they initially seemed.

Taken as a whole, "10 Cloverfield Lane" feels like a feature length episode of "The Twilight Zone" — it's ominous, foreboding, and punctuated by plot twists that keep you guessing about the characters' motivations. A financial and critical success earning $110.2 million, "10 Cloverfield Lane" garnered praise from publications like Variety, who said the film's "tension is rooted in psychology rather than gimmickry and evinces a command of craft that feels old-fashioned in the most refreshing possible sense."

An argument could be made that numerous "Planet of the Apes" movies deserve a place on this list. But in terms of overall quality and storytelling, few entries in the series surpass 2014's "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes."

A few years after the events of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," most of humanity has perished as a result of the contagious Simian Flu. What few survivors remain gather in the ruins of decrepit cities like San Francisco, coming into contact with a tribe of intelligent apes led by Caesar (Andy Serkis) in the process.

Epic in scope and practically Shakespearean in its story, "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" follows up "Rise" by showcasing the increasing intelligence of the apes and the power struggles within both human and ape factions. "Dawn" was a major blockbuster success in the mid-2010s, grossing more than $710 million. "In the annals of sequels, 'Dawn' is to 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' what 'The Empire Strikes Back' was to 'Star Wars' — it's that much better," said The Hollywood Reporter.

Before his Oscar-winning exploration of inequality, 2019's "Parasite," director Bong Joon-ho tackled similar topics from completely different angles in his previous movies. One of these previous movies would be "Snowpiercer," the Chris Evans-starring vehicle set in a near future where a man-made ice age has rendered all of Earth's surface uninhabitable. The remaining human population travel aboard a train — the titular "Snowpiercer" — that never stops moving across the globe.

After nearly two decades aboard the train, the survivors have been organized into different social classes. The underfed lower-class passengers attempt to rise up against their elite oppressors.

Bong Joon-ho has a knack for analyzing topical subject matter in genre pieces, as is evident from 2006's "The Host" and 2017's "Okja." In 2013's "Snowpiercer," the director once again touches upon weighty themes and subjects, this time depicting the inherent struggles between social classes.

Aside from its brutal satire, the movie includes some incredible action and fantastic performances from its huge cast, which includes Evans, Jamie Bell, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, John Hurt, and Ed Harris. According to Entertainment Weekly, "'Snowpiercer' sucks you into its strange, brave new world so completely that it leaves you with the all-too-rare sensation that you've just witnessed something you've never seen before ... and need to see again."

In a strange, distant future, the middle of an unpopulated region known as the "Zone" contains a room that can supposedly grant you your deepest wishes. That's the basic premise of "Stalker," the 1979 science fiction film by Andrei Tarkovsky, in which a guide leads two men through the mysterious "Zone" so that their wishes can be fulfilled.

Sparse in everything from dialogue to its post-apocalyptic presentation, "Stalker" focuses more intently on the philosophy, theology, and psychology of its characters than it does its dystopian settings. There are no raiders or flesh-eating zombies creeping around, but it does makes you feel an increasingly poignant sense of unease throughout its nearly three-hour runtime, as the characters gradually draw closer to their fabled destination.

"Stalker" failed to garner positive reviews upon its initial release but has since gained an esteemed reputation in the filmgoing community. The British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine listed it on their list of the 100 greatest films of all time, and the movie also received high scores on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. "There are no flying saucers in the great Russian director's haunting tale of a journey into the depths of a post-apocalyptic landscape, but it offers visual splendor, as well as mysteries, portents and miracles," said the Wall Street Journal.