Are we on Day 26 already? It seems like just yesterday I was defending Martin Lomax as the apex of horror villains! Well today’s challenge has nothing to do with that magnificent little troll. “Most chilling scene from a non-horror” is what we’re going to talk about today.
…and this one only took me a few minutes to come up with.
Back in 1983 (yes, I’m going to throw more Gen-X’isms at you… we’re the ones who brought you heavy metal, cellphones and the internet, so maybe we know a thing or two now shut up and read my bullshit old-man story!)…
Crap, got distracted, lost my train of thought. That’s another Gen-X thing nowadays, you walk into a room to do something then completely forget why you’re in the room. It sucks, you’re going to hate it one day. That and reading glasses, you’re going to fucking hate those too. That, and those annual blood tests your doctor makes you take in order to tell you that you eat too much fat and too much sugar and you drink too much and so now you have to eat fish skin and warm water or you’re going to die of vomit cancer.
1983, we were dealing with the Cold War and having school-wide assemblies to address what we’re going to do when the nuclear bombs fall while we’re in school. Buildings had yellow metal signs on them to let you know which buildings you can flee to in order to survive the initial rain of nuclear fallout, and the entire consciousness of the world was “Any day now, it could all be over any day and you won’t see it coming.” It was terrifying, dystopian, and a partial explanation as to why “punk” became a thing and “No Future” was painted on the backs of jackets.
Then a TV-movie was made called “The Day After.” This movie centers on the events in a small Kansas City when the U.S. and the Soviet Union engage in nuclear attacks that destroy civilization. The movie had a 62% share of American audiences, everyone tuned into this thing, it was an “Emperor Has No Clothes” moment and it was so effective it quite literally changed the course of the Cold War.
The moment that the bombs went off was a powerful moment, it had an immediate effect on those of us school-aged kids who watched it. The entire movie did, but the “bombs killing America” scene was one of the moments that led many of us to become the nihilistic, despondent teenagers that we were. It gave us a visual image of the threat we were living with, to which we all collectively thought “We’re fucked. Why even bother?”
It took me no time at all to come up with the most chilling scene in a non-horror. I think it’s on Netflix, you should watch it, because it’s starting to become relevant again.