A Sign of the Times?

You know, I love apocalypse stories (see my post True Confessions from Dec 2008), but I have to say that I find the sheer number of films with apocalypse themes coming out in the next few months disturbing. And for me, that's saying a lot.

I was checking out the upcoming releases section of IMDB and found the following films either already out or scheduled for release in the next three months:

Zombieland
2012
The Road
Daybreakers
The Book of Eli
Legion

Add in Nick Cage's Knowing from last March and that's 7 movies in less than a year! And these are all major releases, with well-known casts.

It isn't that I'm not looking forward to them -- though it's true that a few sound too bleak even for me (especially The Road, much as I love Viggo Mortenson). It's just that I'm used to getting my apocalypse fix once in a blue moon (translation: I usually have to wait several years in between new movies in the genre). I have to wonder if it's a sign of growing uncertainty over our real future that makes us turn to exaggerated destruction. Or maybe I'm reading too much into things and it's just Hollywood jumping on yet another trend that won't last.

Either way, I'll be squarely in the center of the theater, popcorn in hand, ready to watch John Cusack try to outrun the end of the world when 2012 arrives in my local multiplex. We'll see if the rest of the releases sate even my apocalypse hunger.