I'll never forget when my 9th grade teacher showed the class "Threads" around the time he was teaching the geopolitics of the Cold War. Before we watched it, I remember asking him "Is it anything like the movie 'The Day After'?" And he kinda chuckled and replied "'This movie'll make 'The Day After' look like a Disney movie." And ya know, he was pretty much right.
@@BronzeDragon133 I think "When The Wind Blows" is depressing, but it's kind of very sweet at times, in a way. "The Day After" even had a few heartfelt moments (like the scene where Steve Guttenberg reveals his balding scalp to the the daughter dying of radiation poisoning, after she laments she doesn't look pretty anymore). "Threads" really was just 112 min of bleakness that just never let up.
Where I grew up, they wouldn't let the kids watch The Day After. So disappointed when I snuck in a viewing of it. Worst tv film ever, hands down. It was just stupid af
@@RenegadeFilm86 I've never seen "Threads" but i'm definitely going to watch it after watching your video. For me "Come and See" is by far the most horrifying film I have ever seen and I believe the best film ever made.
@@ajlballet2161 dunno if I’d go as far as bestowing it with the wide-brush label of best film ever made, but that of course is a matter of subjectivity. It is an incredible film nonetheless..& really in a category of its own for inducing the viewer with such a degree of sobering existential dread. However, I will concede in agreement that it is undoubtedly the most raw, potent & overall best anti-war film of all time and there really isn’t a close second.
I watched Threads as a teenager, when it was first shown on the BBC. When I found it on RU-vid, I encouraged my wife, who is 11 years younger than me, to watch it. She was horrified. "Good god," she exclaimed, "did people in Sheffield really dress like that?" I said, "They still dress like that now!"
The war game is far more terrifying thats why it was banned for 20 years If they'd have filmed threads in barrow in furness people would have said good but whats changed, it still looks the same ;)
just finished it like 10 minutes ago. it made me drop all of that “apocalyptic fantasy” i had and gave me an understanding for the people who always say that the luckiest were the ones who died in the blast.
I like fantasizing about a post-apocalyptic survival story me as main character and it is entertaining to fantasize. Sometimes you feel like "I mean how bad could it be right?" with your full stomach in your warm house, scrolling instagram etc. This movie is just an incredibly harsh reality check. Fantasizing is entertaining but after watching this movie, I mean it seriously affected my thought process. I dont know how to further explain my feelings but I hope whomever reading this can somehow relate. My English doesnt work more than this lol
@mehmetsaygungumus3869 totally agree. We fantasize about such situations. Series like the walking dead, minus the zombies. But in reality, nothing could be farther from the truth. Even without nukes, just with the power grid failing, 90% of the population would be gone in the first month. Very few could survive w/o their local grocery store and full refrigerator.
I still fantasize about apocalyptic things even after watching Threads, but I know that's all it will most likely be if a nuclear event occurs. As there's quite a bit of industry not far from my house, and as the movie states, thats a target for nuclear weapons.
I agree. This movie is horrifying. I watched it for the first time last night. And all I can say is that it changed my life. Be grateful for every second and cherish your loved ones.
For me this movie wasn’t so much scary as it was disturbing and depressing. Truly the death of hope, and it makes you envy the people who died suddenly over those left to pick up the pieces
Everyone should watch this at least once. It is without doubt the most depressing thing I have ever seen, we had to watch it at school too. I remember the usual scene that day in the classroom, many of us boys cracking jokes for attention - to begin with - but I tell you the jokes soon dried up as the film progressed. Bleak doesn't cover it at all. It's the aftermath that will be most shocking to anyone who watches this film - the scenes and story years on from the initial bombings. The thing that stuck with me most was that scene set about 15 years after the war with those kids/teenagers communicating in a new brutalised version of English like cave people wearing grotty torn up old anoraks scratching and fighting over handfuls of dirty bread on the bleak winter moors. People eating raw dead sheep in the snow like dogs. If there is ever a nuclear war you best hope to be right under one of the bombs and get it over and done with instantly, rather than survive and slowly rot away in a dystopia so bleak and depressing you'd wish you were never born.
we watched it at school too. I remember not long after asking a teacher "are we going to die in a nuclear war" and she depressingly answered "I hope, not...I really do" . Now here we are again...............................
I think the maker of this film nailed it completely. What is so harrowing about Threads is the complete lack of hope and that everything which mankind has achieved, all our history, culture, invention and art becomes completely irrelevant and forgotten.
@@Drobium77 Glad someone else thinks the same. I first saw the movie at High School in 1993. I went home absolutely terrified. I still remember my Dad comforting me at bed time, telling me that the Soviet Union was no more and all the countries were now on the same side, working to decrease their nuclear arsenals etc. He smiled and said something akin to "... what happened in that silly film would never happen nowadays. We lived through that fear, but thankfully you never will..." but my Dad was an intelligent man who'd worked all over the world, and I could tell he didn't truly believe what he was saying. Almost thirty years later and we are just as close, if not closer, to the missiles being launched, and it's now me smiling through a lie and telling the kids "not to worry"...
The whole film messed me up but I found one of the most depressing parts was how the new generation that was born into the world depicted formed their own regressed dialect and had no sense of morality or hope in any sense whatsoever.
Writing and education would collapse entirely, just like any other “dark age”. Illiteracy would surge and almost no one in a few generations will be capable of writing. When this happens, the old world is dead.
At that point it was made clear humanity was destined to perish. If you recall the girl I think whose name was Rose, born months after the bombs fell and society destroyed, was raped and delivered a deformed stillborn baby due to living in a radioactive wasteland! The End
Their's another movie called something like "The Day After" from the late 70s early 80s that brings this scenario to life as well. Either way, I agree with both your opinions due to Russias eagerness to push "The Button" and prove just how powerful they are as a nation and military force. Contrary to that, their are a lot of SJWs and blue pills that want the U.S. to get involved more than we already are and don't realize how awful that would turn out..for everyone..not only someone.
@@robinlarge1630 I've got a book about the TV movie wargames, it explains the facts about nuclear war marvelously wall, but nonetheless it's a terrifying little book to read
As someone from Sheffield, specifically someone born in the 80's who grew up in the city as it still looks in this film, I certainly find it the most frightening and disturbing movie ever. Seeing areas in which I have very specific childhood memories destroyed in a nuclear strike actually makes me well up, even in my 30's.
From sheffield too, born and bred. I watched this movie about ten years ago (I was born in 84) and tbh i was kinda let down. I think all i had heard was it was scariest movie ever and that is all i knew. If I would have heard why and it is more like a build up of dread i would have gone into the movie different.
Sheffield lad here too. I was an extra in Threads. I am the dead boy under a gate in the nuclear winter part. It is one of my childhood memories I remember very well.
I'm from Mexborough, and I'd been going shopping with the girlfriend ont'train since about 82.... I was already a member of CND after The Day After, but after Threads there was no looking back... my 80s band The Way very involved with CND.
6:18 filmed in the shopping centre in Sheffield. There was a handful of actors and actresses stood around and told that when they heard the air raid siren, start screaming and running whilst we film you. The public wasn't told about the filming, so when the air raid siren goes off, what you see is a few actors reacting, and the public believing its a real attack and thus also reacting. A lot of people complained to the BBC because it caused undue panic but it added to the reality of a nuclear attack and how people would react if the air raid sirens went off.
The naturalist acting is what really set this apart and made it hit so hard for me. Every character in the film felt absolutely real, which made the entire scenario feel terribly real.
SPOILERS: For the longest time I always considered the film adaptation of "The Road" as the benchmark for bleak, post-apocalyptic films. Even then, the movie version was more character driven and still offered the potential of hope. I watched the first half of this review and decided to put on Threads. I've never seen anything like it. The narrative arc doesn't contain any highs or lows - just a methodical and objective plummet to the rotting hellscape of post-nuclear attack Sheffield. The story goes from an initial panic, to fear, to dread, to chaos, to loss, to suffering, to finally ending on a grim acceptance. No resolution. No hope. No meaning. That last scene hit me the hardest where after 13 years of struggle, Ruth unceremoniously dies. Her daughter doesn't grieve in the slightest - just loots her body and continues on her way - but leaves the bird book that Ruth kept for all of those years. Great movie - 7/10 will never watch it again
Threads is definitely one of the most terrifying movies ever made. And as a side thought, when I watched HBO's Chernobyl I couldn't shake this feeling for a few weeks, eventually I was able to put it to words. HBO's Chernobyl is a nearly perfect Lovecraftian Horror story.
Chernobyl was fucking epic. id say it did a better job of telling a horrific story, of a lesser event no less, than Threads... but its not a fair comparison
Come and See is the scariest movie I have ever watched. Threads is scary too but Come and See is just the movie that scratched my soul the hardest. Maybe it’s because I have studied WW2 very dearly or because I know as horrifying it is, the reality was Wayyyy more crazy.
I have to be in a certain 'mood' as I think what is happening in the world today is just too terrifying for me to watch if I am too anxious. Certain areas experience misery constantly and feel they are on the brink as some of us in the West do as people hate us when all of our Governments make decisions that our out of our hands for the most part. That is why it is important to stay aware of Geo Politics!!!!!!
@@RenegadeFilm86 Have you seen It's All Quiet on the Western Front? It was made in 1930 and was from the German point of view of WW1....It's graphic and gory and very realistic for a movie made in 1930. There's one scene in particular that shows a British soldier hanging on to barbed wire and a bomb goes off behind him leaving just his severed hands still gripping the wire. It was extremely controversial (and banned in several countries). Check it out sometime
I lived in Sheffield when this film was made, I was 19 in 1984. I passed one of the streets used in the film regularly. Seeing the familier streets (the Moor for example) & sights of Sheffield being destroyed by nuclear explosions really affected me & my friends. It truly scared us & to this day it makes me shudder when I think of it. It is very different seeing somewhere like maybe a city in America destroyed but it's a really scary thing to see familier places you know intimately destroyed. I always remember the woman scavenging with a Sheffield Star newspaper bag, that shit makes it way to real. I agree, by far the scariest most mentally & emotionally impactful film I've seen.
I too watched it in 1984, at secondary school but living in the south of England. I lived 8 miles from Greenham common a Nuclear weapons base and it had a different affect on us. The film showed us the aftermath would be the most terrifying prospect, but living within range of a class one designated Soviet target we knew it would only be a bright flash at most for us then nothing. That was liberating in a way. We were actually surrounded by three main targets, i didn't know at the time of the other two. The nuclear launch site and Porton down chemical weapons facility and AWE where we made our nukes so it was assured destruction outright for us in the area. Pretty certain the Soviets would have dropped the mother load on that lot. The impact of the cold war on our generation is only now being fully realised now and i think it had a massive effect on us. The whole new age traveller movement and rave era in the south of England was a response to it, definitely the rave era was like a time to party in open fields as tomorrow might not arrive. Most of the new age travellers i met were made up of Greenham common protestors or CND activists and they just wanted out of a society built on power structures that could take us to oblivion any minute. I recently saw a documentary about Ukrainians who are planning to organise a mass rave if they get word that Putin moves to dropping nuclear weapons on Ukraine. That just made perfect sense to me after the late 80's party scene in my area. Live in fear or live for the moment is really your only responses to mutually assured destruction. Its interesting hearing from someone that lived in the city used in the portrayal and it being a different experience to how it affected us in our area. Years later i worked on the decommissioning of Burlington in Wiltshire. (Where our government would go underground during an attack) It was stocked continuously with fresh supplies for 4000 VIPs from 1951 to 1990 at the tax payers expense. Its 25sq miles of underground network. Even had a pub down there and little electric milk float type cars. Yet they knew by the late 1960's it was too far from London to get all the VIPs down there in time. Crazy. (65 miles from London) Today its a computer server storage site and wine cellars and Greenham base, also decommissioned has a music recording studio there.
@@ljt3084 I'm in my 70's and grew up in Chicago, we had drills when I was in grade school known as duck and cover. When the siren went off we had to get under our small metal and wood desk and cover our heads! It wasn't until the Vietnam war in the 60's that I gave that period any thought. We were given false hope by the government that we could survive a nuclear attack and we as kids along with most adults believed it! When it happens, humanity and this planet in general is done for!
@@swamp5050 It's very sad that those same drills still happen today, everyday. With all chances of a violent death happening to you in the US being so high it's a suprise people still send their kids to school at all.
@@MrVargatronWhat in the actual F are you talking about? Your chances of death to violence in the U.S. are effectively little different than in Europe. Stop being ignorant and learn how to separate anecdotes from norms.
I think the scariest part of nuclear war isn't the bombs themselves, but how quickly they can be deployed and hoping that you'll have enough time to be in the immediate death zone
@@HitBoxMaster only if we are talking about a full scale war like depicted in threads. Mutual assured destruction isnt as likely as it once was and i would argue it gets less likely as time moves on. Tactical nukes are the future. They are still terrifying but not as catastrophic as strategic ones
@@zoefree3950 they wouldnt be able to fire all of em- Not even close. If i remember correctly, around a thousand are ready for use and among those are the most modern. These modern ones have considerably less yield than the old, big strategic nukes. Most of the big ones are also probably not functional. Upkeek of nukes is expensive as hell, especially if you cant test them (both usa and russia havent tested them in a long time).
I remember watching this on T.V. in London in the Eighties. It has burned itself into my psyche ever since. Those were the days when you'd have a milkman delivering milk every day, leaving it on your door step. Threads must have finished about 9pm and, shocked and absolutely shaken I went to our doorstep to retrieve a bottle from our porch only to be absolutely shocked to realise that the world was still there. I'd become so involved, so entwined with the film that I was convinced it had really happened. So incredibly shocking. It's an amazing piece of work.
A little off topic but London still had the milkman in the 80s? Interesting. We had cows in the barn but the milkman was gone in the name of progress in my part of Canada by that decade.
@@fintanoclery2698 I visited St Thomas Ontario in 89. I'm sure people had milk delivered there... But maybe it was just here and there in the street not everyone as it was at one time, but I'm pretty sure I remember milk on doorsteps
Threads is a masterpiece. The attention to detail is incredible, like the lethargic women at work unraveling fabric to repurpose the thread 13 years after the blast… It really shows that there is no bouncing back from a nuclear attack. This film candy-coats nothing and manages to be SO powerful with a low budget, limited effects, and no big name stars. Excellently done.
There is bouncing back, but it will take thousands of years as society will have to go through all the stages of industrialization again. In that scenario knowledge about things like electricity, agriculture and oil will be extremely valuable.
@@rykehuss3435except we've used up all the oil. We've had the free lunch. When this civilisation fails, the descendants won't have the means of rising again.
@@rykehuss3435The thousands of years you speak of would be a slow roll, not a bounce back. That is if the human race even survives. If it did, I would put my money on those people who live in the remote regions of Siberia that didn’t know that WWII happened.
@@waverlyking6045Humans will survive. Humans have and will face tough conditions and guess what. We are not dead. Yes. It's true that a nuclear war is going to be devastating and catastrophic and also take hundreds of thousands of years to be industrial again but there will be survivors.
I agree so much, this flm TERRIFIED me. The very last scenes, the nearly savage way of living from the new generations, from their broken language, from the empty look of their eyes, to the way in which Jane is impregnated.... to the implication of that very last scene. There will be no new hope, none. That's fucking horrific.
Bottlenecked into unparalleled savagery and close to self induced borderline extinction, with probably still some rudimentary pretenses towards some morality. Life for those kids would be even far more tragic than for desperate waifs during the Dark Ages. I can only imagine what would crawl out of those generations in the ashes.
They were clearly fighting over food in that last scene XD No need to jump to those 'urges'. "Gizza" was "Gimme t'food", not "Gimme t'booty" or whatever allo kids say nowadays. Sure, at some point afterwards offscreen she probably was, but eh. Apparently it was bad that the nurse used 'precious curtain material' during the end-end scene, I read on one comment whenever I watched Threads here on YT a few years back.
@Neil Rusling Yeah sure I'll be happy I'm disabled, can't live a normal life, can't just Make My Own Happy because I'll be punished for it or I will punish someone else(!). ¬_¬ Sorry, 'cheer it it would be worse nyeh nyeh' angers me so much when I LITERALLY CANNOT JUST CHEER UP. I already feel like I'm wasting your superior oxygen and being a massive burden to you lot. Can't tell you to shut up saying either just because silly little me is upset by it. Can't ask you abled people to specifically not say anything that upsets the 0.00000000001% because the 99.9% is fine with it and sorry after 30 years I'm sick of having to put up with being Put Down And Lump It just because I'm lesser than you. You just be happy you're not disabled to start with. It could easily be worse. Don't be an idiot TransAbled person and you'll be the happiest person alive. (!) = Sarcasm, btw.
I remember seeing this as a kid. Shook me to my core as there was not even a hint of salvation by the end credits. Next day at school you could tell who'd watched it, they had a weird look about them.
I saw this in High School. The whole film is confronting but the ending of Threads is something I've never forgotten. Despite the horror the film presents throughout, that final scene is the ultimate negation of all hope for the future and it's stayed with me all these years.
Just think, she's 13 when she gives birth. And we never see the child, but it's obvious it must be horribly mutated based on her reaction. A final gut punch that shows in that world, there is no hope, no future.
I was a teenager (19) with my first girlfriend, alone with her for the first time in my parents' home in 1984, they were away on holiday. We had a bottle of wine and were looking forward to a 'nice' evening.... when this came on TV. I wasn't living far from Sheffield at the time and all the locations were familiar. She vomited into one of my dad's slippers! The evening was not romantic in any way and we were both scared shitless afterwards for ages!
Watched ‘Threads’ and Jesus Christ! It’s definitely the scariest movie I’ve ever watched! The scariest part of ‘Threads’ is the fact that nuclear war is still possible!
@@bexgriffiths3752 I pray to God that this movie doesn’t become reality! When the nukes drop. It doesn’t matter what skin color, religion, or political leaning. We are ALL equally fucked!!!!
@@bexgriffiths3752 I first thought , no, no chance of things going that far. In the last week or so I have actually started to think its quite possible that this becomes reality... Frightening...
It's scary being made to watch it at school age 8 in the cold war. It was based on Hiroshima / Nagasaki type bombs on the UK. So it's even more scary in the 21st century with hypersonic cruise missiles, multiple warhead ICBM's, stealth bombers & even fast jet fighters can carry them. AND NOW, with Russia & Ukraine.....
@@Mach5Johnny nuclear war is still very much Mutually Assured Destruction - MAD. America drools over its 'first strike capability' but they would still get wasted regardless due to the 'dead mans switches' in subs & other installations. The REAL worry is that these sick bastards want to start ww3 with chemical & biological warfare BEFORE the nukes. But of course, the horror of what Japan were doing with their unit 731, may have been a contributing factor into dropping nukes on Japan & ending the war without a prolonged conventional US land offensive. So with that in mind, using chemical & biological warfare directly would lead to nuclear holocaust. So America does things in a sneaky way, proxy wars, employing terrorists, false flag attacks on themselves to blame other countries for & installing bio-warfare labs around the world, in places like, oh I dunno, kazakhstan, Ukraine......
Between it, "The Day After," and the reality of life under Reagan I never bothered "prepping" for that theat. It would likely be pointless. I'm prepared for earthquakes, wildfires, extended loss of power, but a nuclear war would destroy far too much for far too long for there to be a point.
And here we are nearly 40 years later. Sheffield is my hometown. Places I know and went made it more impactful. A culturally important film. Full movie is public domain and free to watch at Internet Archive.
I watched this and “The Day After” when they came out in the early 80s. There was a scene in one of them that really had an impact on me. At the moment the bombs were going off, it showed a woman in a business suit staring at the bomb and then pans down and shows her wetting herself. I think it really captured the fear such an event would cause in people. Both these films were powerful but the video poster is right, Threads really got in your face about how horrible it would be. Neither film ends on a happy note either…no conflict resolution in the plot….Just, “this is your life now..deal with it.” Truly a horror film.
That's the bit that REALLY got to me. You see the mushroom cloud, then the woman staring at the sky, terrified. She drops her ice cream and you see it land just beside her foot. Then urine spills out from the bottom of her trouser suit to soak the ground next to where the ice cream lies. That few seconds says, "This is now the end of everything". Perhaps the most frightening few seconds in all of cinema.
I never thought "The Day After" was a good movie, because it is rather harmless. It ends with first slow rebuilding efforts, hope if you will... In reality, we would get a nuclear winter of 10 years straight (according to studies with modern climate computer models) and basically no hope at all.
As a horror movie fanatic, I am pretty desensitized and was a bit frustrated that nothing could scare me anymore. Then I watched Chernobyl. Radiation and the damage it causes is the most terrifying thing ever. Definitely have to check out this movie.
Although it was called Chernobyl by HBO the correct Ukrainian name always will be (and always was) Chornobyl and we all will be thankful to anyone using the correct one. Thank you for reading.
@@nan9180 Thank you so much for explaining! Now I am honestly confused why it always is and was called Chernobyl (it's also spelled Tschernobyl in German), I mean, it is located in the Ukraine and the Soviet days are, gladly, long gone.
Place names are always colloquialised. Take Munchen in Germany, in English we call it Munich. Before Russia invaded Ukraine Kyiv was known to us as Kiev. Even in our own country there are places that we can’t pronounce correctly so people have colloquial names for them (especially in my area - Wales). I will remember Chornobyl though.
I saw this film back in the 1980s, on the TV. I was maybe 12 years old. Afterwards, I started sleepwalking into my parent's room, they said I was weeping and crying out that everyone was gone, all the houses were empty, the world was empty. I vaguely recall a recurring, vivid dream (nightmare) in which I went to my parent's room only to find the bed empty, and a terrible sense of absolute despair washing over me.
Before "Threads", I remember when "The Day After" was about to air. In the days leading up to it, there were these ridiculous news anchors constantly talking up the show, saying sensationalist things like, "Experts strongly advise NOT to watch this show alone" (yes, they literally implicitly stated that psychologists were worried people would commit suicide en mass from depression after watching the show), and "Do NOT let your children see this show", etc. When it actually aired I was SO disappointed. It just had to weight, no meat on it at all. Then..... some time later, "Threads" aired. With little fanfare, and none of the dire suicide warnings of TDA. It just showed up on TV one night. I was ready to be disappointed, having already pegged it as someone's attempt at a cheap copy of TDA. But oh no.... What I got was a tense, harrowing, never-ending descent into despair and and loss of all hope. It never let up. It just kept going, worse and worse. I felt for the characters. And I felt for US - all of we people, of whatever nation(s), who would have to live through these events should it ever come true. I truly worried about the possibility of nuclear war after that. I mean, I was fine, I went on with my life, but I subconsciously dreaded the possibility of everything we know and love being destroyed by this kind of event.
Good assessment, i agree. Have you seen the US movie Testament? That truly is depressing and a little scary. Early performance by Kostner in a bit part.
I think most of the people who describe this movie as "scary" or "terrifying" were kids or teenagers when they watched it. As an adult, it was just depressing and deeply sad.
Threads is an unnerving tour of the worst-case scenario. I've rewatched it many times because it puts my personal problems in perspective and makes me feel better.
Well, remember that life is absurd and nonsensical, live in spite of this,live in spite of the fact that we live on a spec of blue dust, this beautiful atom we live on is all we probably will ever know and see in person. Always be a good person despite the absurd suffering because if there's no God,then you lived a good life,and if it does and if it's just,it will treat you like you treated others.
Living in the UK we had to watch this at school. I bought it on DVD some years ago and it is by far the most horrifying film I’ve ever seen. It’s so realistic and could so easily have happened. It’s so creepy when you watch these normal families going about their normal lives with the news reports going on in the background like happens in real life. You don’t worry about it because you know the world leaders will negotiate and stop it happening. But in this film the worst thing does happen.
A companion piece to this is 1965’s The War Game. Seldom seen because it was withdrawn from the BBC, it is absolutely uncompromising in its depiction of nuclear war.
The War Game definitely influenced Threads but they are worlds apart in depicting the absolute futility of life after nuclear war. TWG feels far more detached and documentary like. Threads drags you in and takes you on a nightmare journey.
In some ways this movie IS Lovecraftian. The dread and all consuming impact of fear as an almost tangible physical presence that permeates the realm of this film: That mushroom cloud is the "Demon Core" fully realized. Side note: I'm glad that the city officials/council people weren't portrayed as mindless idiots or terrible people, which a more cliched, standard film might've done. They are just victims of the great monster unleashed.
"The dread and all consuming impact of fear as an almost tangible physical presence that permeates the realm of this film..." LMAO you really see yourself as a professional writer and film critic, don't you? 🤣
@@kwisclubta7175 I am. Just my honest reaction. I was very affected by this film. Its once (and maybe future) real life possibility is not far off in its tone, to me, from the tone of most of his stories. You're pretty funny too. TEHO
Spoiler alert 'I'm glad that the city officials/council people weren't portrayed as mindless idiots or terrible people,' Absolutely. In an odd kind of way the scene where the local official completely untrained and unprepared for anything like this tries to help against the odds and then finally gives up and utterly breaks down knowing there is absolutely nothing he can do was for me the worst part of the movie. I've never forgotten it though there are of course objectively worse scenes than that. Bruce Willis, Arnold, etc. are not running to the rescue in this one ...
I was petrified of the dark as a child, my Grandma used to watch scary movies with us (siblings & cousins), and at the end of every one, she would disappear, and we'd have to cautiously creep through the house calling out for her until "Brrraaaggghhhh!!!!" She'd jump out and scare the piss out of us. Haha Good ole days.
My mom loved scaring me as a kid. I love that about her, she's truly twisted. On Halloween she always dressed in a really scary witch costume and played a nat geo record of coyotes howling.. she heard a kid leaving say to another kid who was coming up the walk "stay away from that Lady she's crazy!". Good times..
There have been times in history that resemble the ending of Threads. Things used to be grim during famine and pestilence, often caused by wanton butchery and r*pe during wars. It’s the fall back to those times that is most terrifying to think about. We have it relatively good at the moment, let’s keep it that way.
Ah The Road, a wonderfully bleak film! Brutally honest depiction of a post cataclysm America. It even goes so far as to hide the specific cause of disaster, thus leaving the viewer in the dark as much as the characters. Paranoia, mistrust, more cannibalism than you ever want to see on screen 😬, the fragile fears and kindness of a young child vs his father's mistrust of everyone - all set amongst the useless smashed structures of former society.
@@DavidCurryFilms Also, I just ran across an animation from Britian based around an elderly couple that survive an EOTW scenario and it was pretty dark. The title escapes me.
I watched Threads when it was first broadcast by the BBC. I was 12 years old. We watched it as a family, mom, dad and my sister. It was disturbing for all of us, especially for my parents who were visibly shaken by it. The absolute horror for me came at the end. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, but the utter bleakness of that final scene was crushing and stayed with me for a long, long time. *Everyone should watch this film.*
Never have I seen a film that managed to deplete every ounce of my optimism as quickly as Threads. Those who died from the nuclear blasts and collapsing debris were truly the lucky ones.
Fantastic analysis! I'm from Yorkshire so I remember finding Threads doubly chilling when I saw it as young teen, everyone in it felt like family. Kids being born into a nuclear aftermath is the most gut wrenching bit. Still gives me shivers.
Excellent review you nailed it point by point. When this movie was shown in Australia on commercial TV, unlike UK, it was advertised as so important it was without ads... Unusual for commercial stations. I must say I fully shit my pants upon seeing it & even after 36yrs I remember it in so much detail, & believe me I have a memory like a sive, and again great job. I'll look out for other reviews of yours in the future
It's interesting how often the scariest films are not the ones stapled as horror. Often the most effective horror comes when exploring human nature and its shocking seemingly endless capacity for violence. While a classic horror movie with a supernatural aspect can definitely be haunting and scary something like threads is just ultimately so much more terrifying.
that's funny and this is just kind of how subjective horror is... and it's really one of the most subjective things in the entertainment medium, I'm the total opposite that way.. the supernatural is genuinely one of the only things that can actually get that creepy vibe that I used to have as a kid.. reality is just more sad, depth of human nature is just more sad.. but in my like 10 million word post that I just put down which was originally just talking about camera techniques (1) I kind of broke down my personal reaction to different things.. and like things out of your control basically.. and then there's the concept of the malevolent Force.. and I really think a nuclear apocalypse especially a total one, that is a force that is out of your control.. and it's combined with malevolence and it's combined with a lot of things.. I think I called it a war demon.. and it really I mean shit who knows about the supernatural but it might even be just that manifested... But like my former wife she's to complete opposite, and she's basically a witch.. like a real witch, not some larper or hippie that wanted to commune with nature or get back at their parents or read too much astrology... You can tell this because she's also Catholic just in case you need to verified proof LOL... but you think that because she has a reality that exists in a spirit world that I have no comprehension of that it would be scarier right but no.. things that scare her are things like serial killers and what I would consider more to be like thrillers basically.. sure the supernatural is scary but it's not scary on the same level but it's almost swapped.. I look at a thriller as a puzzle.. you should find a tactical advantage or a escape advantage and then call the police who can bring a tactic cool advantage.. and then screw it up even further but eventually they'll arrest him unharmed with several civilians hit... (Man 20 years ago I just would have said call the police.. go figure). Like you got options.. and for the most part aside from some skill you're just a squishy as they are even if you might have to peel back some layers of body armor or a plastic mask.. pre-drilled for your convenience of course in case you got a ice pick on you.. You really got no control over a nuclear apocalypse.. like the contamination factor alone.. not only is the weather bad and toxic.. the food the soil everything.. and it doesn't just stop being toxic and it does continue to spread along.. just like a disease.. and sure you can try to limit that and get the situation where they've been relatively cleaned off and can't infect anyone once you can actually get people that can actually carry that out and assuming you have water pressure etc.. and they're still probably going to not be able to have contact with you without protection.. but they're going to die very quickly if they're that irradiated it's not going to be fun and it's not going to be nearly as quick as they might want it to be.. but they won't linger like with the disease, but it'll sure slow time down to feel like it... And you think in the modern age after we decided to kneecap our health organization specifically designed to deal with something in particular and had done so successfully prior twice in a row and across the board in both its origin country and the countries that are the largest contributors to these organizations.. they managed to fix it in 10 years so there was absolutely no way it wasn't going to just wave across the globe... do you really think you're going to get these people to understand the concept of radioactive contamination.. I mean look at all the tourists that keep grabbing items and taking them home from Chernobyle There is a plus side though, the more people that die off from the seriousness of the Apocalypse.. the less people there are to murder people and fight over resources.. and eventually there will be no people more than likely.. but fortunately it's pretty hard to saturate the globe at that point like.. these aren't designed to basically maximum and coverage and spaced out evenly and all that like they're going to have targets and they're going to hit those targets and they're not going to hit those targets a lot of the time but eventually once all the targets have been hit theoretically there won't be anything to shoot anymore because most of those are the targets.. Unless your France.. where you just hope to get it nearby some people ha! The more the merrier! If France starts the apocalypse they might actually do an even distribution if I recall.. I'm only half joking on that one the other part of that is they literally decided that precision is for nerds, and it would be way easier if they just dropped it on a city and that was the whole point.. Viva la frog land! So I don't know.. but if you're nearby anybody that France got mad at.. which is probably going to be Switzerland obviously.. which already has a supernatural demon problem anyways.. like a real bad problem in those Misty Alps and deep dark dwarven vaults they call Banks.. So basically if you're in Italy or any of the surrounding tax shelters etc.. then yeah you'd probably have to deal with that pretty hard.. and because France would obviously have missed any tactical targets.. then if they weren't sufficiently warned or felt mad and wanted to get back at them.. then France would have to deal with that wherever those launches happened, so... Actually have no idea, that's probably a feature right? I know they have subs but they also have land rockets as well plus honestly if you're doing a revenge smacking tactics first, and then cities and you can do that cuz... I should probably stop at this point LOL now I'm just going over it in my head and this is why serial killers aren't that scary to me.. like I can kind of break it down and in my headspace.. might not be able to do anything about it but I've thought about it so it's not really a panic moment.. pretty sure nuclear apocalypse would be a panic moment.. that being said my dad actually comes up with scenarios for that for FEMA, that was literally his job until he retired a few years ago was to design distribution platforms for different scenarios and whatnot.. so he would probably drive down here like a dumbass, but it would be a while cuz he would take care of the sister who's local and the niece.. but he also doesn't have a gun and he's like he would fight he can fight kind of but he's he's an incredibly nice and wonderful human being and his first reaction wouldn't be to go fight things LOL his first reaction would be can I help you let me get that for you so I would have to come to him that would just be the smart thing on my end... Just remember don't touch anything, lock your doors.. don't let your neighbors in because they've got dust on them and that dust is death... Drop cloth in painter's tape time!although you might be able to get some good water out of the pipes and should get some water out of the pipes as much and as fast as you can for like a good chunk of time that you've thought about beforehand as to the pipe length.. but if you thought that far ahead you might actually have emergency water... Would really suck if you were outside though when it happened like those folks on the bridge at Chernobyl.. cuz then you go inside.. and then you got to kill your neighbors and take their house cuz all your stuff is contaminated! (1)and how much I liked them in that 78 invasion of the body snatcher style and I thought that was one of the really cool ideas of this being the docu drama
I have a special appreciation for movies that are terrifying when they aren't specifically meant to be horror. The scariest movie I've ever seen, that left the biggest mark on me was the G rated Disney film Return to OZ. It's just made from the nightmares of children.
Threads, Barefoot Gen, When the Wind Blows as well as Come and See all deserve more recognition as horror films the kind if stuff depicted in those films is all kinds of disturbing for various reasons and all non conventional.
If anyone ever asks me what the scariest movie I've ever seen is, I always say "Threads." I had to watch your video after seeing the title. It's hard to put into words how devastated and hopeless I felt after watching this movie, but also how much I cherished life afterward, just you mentioned. Great video.
I think if the film had been put in the theatres, the effect on movie goers would be likened to those who saw the Exorcist in 1973. The difference. Doubt remains whether demon possesion(as in the exorcist) is real or fictional. There is no doubting the grim reality of what Nuclear War will bring. And actually the depictions seen in Threads did actually happen in real life. They happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Threads gives us a glimpse of what the Japanese people experienced. But of course on a more Global and permanent scale. With Threads, there is no hero at the end. Unless we count Death itself being the hero. Sparing those from a lifeless existence. Maybe that's one reason so many stay away from this film. Grim reality.
It is simple, undignified and utterly risible. That's why it works. No flashy budget or star power gets in the way of it's vision of a very possible scenario of hell on earth....
I just finished this and I have to say...I watch a lot of disturbing/violent films and I have grown desensitized to it. This one however; this hits different. I have never been so disturbed and sad watching a film in my life. The extremely accurate depiction of nuclear war and the aftermath is shocking and how the film has you spend time with these characters and their lives and stories is very well done. This is a film that be mandatory watching for everyone, it is very important especially in the times we live in now; thank you very much for your video, I knew nothing of Threads until I clicked on your channel. I will never forget watching this, it will live with me forever.
I was born in Sheffield and I was 18 in 1984 when Threads aired. The horror and despair was even worse due to the familiarity of the locations, the accents of the people. At the end of the movie all I could think was that it all might happen for real, maybe tomorrow. It's a shame that's still true.
For sure this is truly the scariest real time film ever made. Everyone should be educated about the devastation of nuclear war and the aftermath. In nuclear war no one wins
I saw this movie and at first I thought it wasn't going to be that hard, but then I realized I was wrong. The level of realism is impressive for a film from 1984, the truth is that more than liking it, it ended up making me reflect on how fragile human existence can be and everything we have built for hundreds of years. Thank you for this reflection, and nice video.
Well given the fact that say there was a nuclear war south America would remain basically untouched subsahrahan Africa would also be fine and likely new Zealand and Australia (albeit they have appeared on some declassified strike maps but they almost exclusively target Australia's huge metal supplies in the outback) but humanity would survive . But we probably and hopefully wouldn't
I've seen Threads a few times, in fact I watched it last night. It never loses it's impact and current world events make the build up to the war all the more chilling.
Re watched a few weeks back and combined with the current geopolitical situation it gave me nightmares for about a week including one night where I woke up screaming and woke up my wife in the process.
I watched it when it was originally shown, it has haunted me ever since. There is no way I could ever watch it again, not only because of the film it is but it brings back the everyday fear of this happening that we lived with.
Brilliant synopsis. I saw this when first released in the U.K. when I was young and impressionable and I have had a phobic reaction to the word nuclear ever since. What is happening right now in Ukraine, has upped my anxiety levels sky high.
You're not the only one, Zeb, you're not the only one. I am 52 years old and I've always followed geo-politics, wars and the news very closely. And, not in MY life-time have I seen the world THIS close. We are but a couple of more sanctions and the offer of planes and weapons by well-meaning European Govts away from the unthinkable.
@@ChopperSouthern I know I’m watching the news and social media and the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach is getting stronger and stronger. At this moment I cannot think of anyone on the world stage who can step in as any kind of mediator who isn’t tainted in some way.
What I loved about this movie is how all of the actions were really an exercise in futility once the bomb dropped. We are shown acts of heroism and bravery, people thinking wisely about the situation, people doing exactly what they were taught to do, others not doing so to try and save others, and all of this sacrifice amounted to absolutely nothing. Everyone ended up dead or wishing they were dead despite everyone’s best efforts. The ending doesn’t feel so much as a rebirth of humanity from the ashes, but more of an epilogue of humanity, as like everything else after the bomb dropped an exercise in futility, as future generations wouldn’t have the mental capacities to fix human civilization and those that did wouldn’t have the resources. A nuclear war wouldn’t just bomb a people into the stone age, it would force them to stay in the stone age for the rest of eternity.
Yes it is absolutely terrifying. My first thought when I watched it in about 2003 was 'I don't want to die', which confirms your assessment that it reinforces our appreciation of life, so you're pretty spot-on in your analysis.
I just watched Threads. This film was so terrifying that when the first Nuclear warhead hit and what happened after. I got never ending chills and I didn’t move a single muscle for 50 minutes straight. As a person so deep into the Cold War and my father and I knowing about nuclear warfare is inevitable. This film is slowly becoming into a reality again.
To be honest, if "Threads" seemed like a scary movie to you, then you should watch the Soviet version of similar events. The film "Письма Мертвого Человека", which translates as "Dead Man's Letters" tells a story in which the bombs just fell and how people try to survive on the wreckage. It's not like standard post-apocalyptic films, Dead Man's Letters really gives an eerie, hectic mood.
@@bruceslater2614 I dont think you can legally anywhere, unless you happen to find a disc copy of it for sale somewhere. Sailing the seven seas is your best bet, I already found it on one russian site as a BDRemux
Here’s kick to your nuts. Not too many people pay attention to the dates that are listed in the movie for a time scale, but the movie starts on Saturday March 5th. Yesterday was Saturday March, 5th. It’s very odd since we’re having severe tensions with Russia and Putin is threatening to use nuclear weapons.
@@philipdru9290 no but the events in the movie don't match up with the current Ukraine timeline. That said we aren't out of the woods yet, nostradamous prediction for 2023 isn't brilliant
Saw it as a child, in a town about 10 miles from sheffield. The look on the girls face when she's given her child at the end is enough tbh. One of the only films u need to watch once.
@@cuckingfunt9353 Threads was removed from the UK streaming service BritBox because some Twitter snowflakes thought it was insensitive. The same people who call for a no fly zone. They'd like a good nuclear war but don't want to be reminded of the consequences.
Great video. The sense of dread from threads is amazingly impactful. Very realistic and the depictions of widespread death and damage are some of the most powerful scenes I’ve seen. Great analysis, you’ve earned a sub from me. The fact that we haven’t been in this situation is nothing short of a miracle. Shout out to the Soviet submarine officer, Vasili Arkhipov, who refused to launch a nuclear torpedo during the Cuban missile crisis. The other two officers were ready to launch due to the US blockade vessels dropping depth charges on the submarine. His actions are nothing short of heroic and he single handedly prevent a full scale nuclear war. Hopefully in the future cooler heads will prevail.
I saw this film when it first came out and still have the original video recording of it. It has always stuck in my mind too as the scariest film ever. I have often commented over the ensuing years on its "simplicity" before the bombs went off, with everyone going about their lives and not taking much notice of what was going on in the background on TV and radio. Raw British film making at its best. Thank you for covering it.
This reminds me of another chilling post-apocalyptic film called Embers it has very little dialogue. Basically everyone left has anterograde amnesia -they not only don't know who they are *they cannot form new memories* (if you've seen the film Memento, it's that kind of amnesia). So you have a young man and woman that sort of wander thru debris to a bus stop (not realizing there are no buses in this mess) and they notice they both have on a piece of crocheted blue bracelet on wrist exactly the same. They think this means they must belong together and had marked themselves so they could recognize ec other. They manage to forage and sleep while not losing ec other, they kiss (but how do they know they arent siblings?) Then while crossing some debris, the girl hurts her foot and the guy says he will go get some water and something to use as bandage ...she says please don't leave you'll forget...he says I could never forget you....within minutes when they are out of sight their memories reset and that's it. They are literally less than 50 yards apart but because he turned a corner, they may as well be on different planets. He just starts walking toward a noise the other way,., She realizes she cut her foot and starts picking her way limping thru the debris. Anyway the film leaves them and much later they run into ec other and have no memory and once again notice they have matching "bracelets" ..."we must've put these on so we would know that we belong to each other" and their relationship begins again... It's the bleakest dystopia film I've seen...a violent young man robs an old guy for a can of food, he is angry and expresses sadistic glee when he triuphs...then a gang beats him and takes the food and he cries like a toddler would...memory resets and he doesn't know why he's crying and just picks himself up and starts destroying things...there's a small child that sort of attaches to a series of ppl , each who forget him...the most interesting character is an old man living in woods in cabin who has a system...He is managing to function by tying colored ropes from tree to tree which lead him to the well to get water etc ...he must've been a professor or intellectual, and has all these books he is trying to figure out what happened, but every time his memory resets it starts all over...his progress is so incremental it might as well be on the scale of evolution. The thing that was so horrifying is humans were basically animals. It made me realize that without any previous memory nor ability to there can be no identity, or true consciousness. No relationships, no meaning. Truly nihilistic.
This movie really reminds me of Grave of The Fireflies. Both show a post war not apocoliptic but strugling and grim land where people are just barely scraping by and are thrust into a world where all comforts are gone and they are forced to live by any means necessary.
A decent review. I've watched it many times over the years having first watched on the BBC in 1984. What an impact that was. The DVD remaster was released a couple of years ago.You now see things you didn't before, much more clearly. Even the seasoned viewer is slapped in the face with a new experience. Should be compulsory viewing for all. Thanks for the upload.
Great review ! Threads terrified the living daylights out of me and still does. Saw it for the first time in 1985 on TBS . And watched it again in 2015. Left me just as depressed as I was when I was 14-years old. This film pulls no punches and hits you right in the gut ! Even more terrifying it almost became a reality. Let’s pray to God it never does
This movie was incredibly traumatic for me as a kid. The Day After was scary, but it was a movie. Threads was an experience akin to going through a surrealistic spook house.
Never seen this movie or even heard of it but from what I've heard, seen and read so far I'm not surprised that the English made a good, realistic, horrifying movie about the after effects of war. Seeing as they had to deal with the aftermath of both world wars as well as Britain's history in general it makes sense why Jackson can hit such hard hitting notes and scenes. As a random example think about the last war America had in its soil. The Civil War. Almost 2 centuries ago. I know I know "but what about Sep 11 and Pearl Harbor??!!" Well, they weren't wars fought on American soil. They were surprise attacks on American soil. The English haven't even had a century since their last war, not to mention the fact that the wars waged in Europe are much close than America. Basically it just makes sense that Threads is so scary because of their history where as "day after tomorrow" was scary, but not the same way.
I agree with everything you said. I watched it for the second time recently with my fiancé this time who loves horror films and she was having nightmares for weeks after watching it. I think its the thought that this could have been real if the cold war spiralled out of control and in a increasingly dangerous world could be our future.
Yet here we are 6 months later at the closest point we have been to Nuclear War since the end of the Cold War suddenly making this film very relevant again.
"The Conspiracy Against The Human Race" by Thomas Ligotti. I appreciate the discussion of Ernest Becker and his criminally ignored work. Hardly one person in a hundred has heard of him, but you spoke very concisely about his main theme.
You're spot on in your description of current vs. past horror movies. The classics were those 70's/80's flicks and most everything (horror) that's been made since then is a derivative. I remember when "The Day After" came out. The next day everyone in school was freaking out. I'm going to watch Threads A.S.A.P. Cool channel keep it up!
Hereditary fucked up a few nights' sleep for me. After being so disappointed with horror movies for years, it made me want to find more horror gems. Was my favorite genre as a kid, definitely going to check out Threads tonight, thanks! Edit: Just finished it, holy jesus h that was bleak
Threads was the possible reality that we have forgotten about from the 80's. I watched it at the time and it still has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Raymond Briggs also delivered a wonderful graphic story When the Wind Blows which was a follow up to Gentleman Jim. I remember the public information films too...We came so close.
My dad forbid me from watching this, he said it was not suitable. I watched it on vhs when he went to the shops, I regretted this for years. The nightmares I still have caused by the real trauma of the real threat was terrifying. Nuclear war, AIDS and drugs were bombarded at us to a terrifying level. The world changed for us at this time edit** I was 11 years old
The British can do this extreme type of stuff right. It doesn't feel overdone or exaggerated for effect, it just feels like the bleak reality that the circumstances actually would create. When the Canadians try and do stuff like this it comes accross as extreme to a silly, unrealistic degree. And American film makers don't even attempt to make anything this bleak.
@@Tony_Cardozaas an American I disagree, I think what this movie needs is an American port where they add that one violin sound in like from the American port of kitchen nightmares, and it gos black and white, slow-mo, and plays sad music when something bad happens, and also it should be set in America instead because I don’t care about Britain, also they should add a main antagonist who’s a Russian and has an eyepatch.
When you said "Sheffield" I immediately remembered this movie. I saw it as a 13 year old some time after The Day After. I agree. The thought on nuclear war haunted me throughout my adolescence.
Definitely the most visceral and depressing film I've ever seen. One thing I'll add to what you've said in your video here is that much of Threads seems to have been inspired by a popular long-running British TV news topic/mini documentary show called Panorama. That show is still running and still deals with major current affairs affecting Britain. There was an episode from the early 80's on the subject of nuclear war which examined the classic 'what if' scenario Threads dares to imagine in detail. The episode postulated the experiences of everyday citizens and civil defence staff too. Although the Panorama episode maintained the gravity of such a scenario, what I love about Threads is how it takes those scenes (it's almost an identical match) and plays out a much more likely, and utterly depressing conclusion: everyone fails and dies alone, afraid in utter confusion and bewilderment, and it proceeds to depict it so. There's a coldness to it Panorama never intended to capture. Anyway, Threads is a more skeptical sort of "the real thing will be way worse" revelation, seemingly based on or at least inspired in some way that episode. I found a link to that Panorama episode elsewhere on RU-vid here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-milbW4RDIco.html
The bulk of my family is Japanese, and in Japan's school system you're made to see A LOT of photos and videos of the real life aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Threads is certainly harrowing, but also doesn't really compare to being made to see the real thing every day at school when you're like 12.
@@nicke1903 no, of course not. assuming you're american, were you taught about the My Lai massacre in school? just as american kids are only taught about horrors inflicted upon our soil, japanese kids are only taught about horrors inflicted on theirs. everyone is only taught of their own "blood and soil", and every country on earth desperately lies, directly and by omission to its people to save face-- after all, how can you stew patriotic nationalism in your people when you admit the past barbarities of your own country? all this to say that we are all blissfully unaware of things we should have been made aware of in our history classes, and we shouldn't be so quick to judge each other on what we've missed. it's by design.
@@nicke1903why would you say that in such an accusatory way? It’s not like twelve year olds decide on their own educational programming. If you want Japan to acknowledge its atrocities you had better first advocate for your OWN country to add its own horrors to its curriculum. Are you American? We don’t even teach kids the real horror of the trail of tears….. so start with that
As someone from Sheffield and being 12 when this first come out, watching it now brings back memories of old buildings blown up in the film that are no longer there now. Seeing the old egg box near the town hall and BHS on the moor been nuked and then seeing the mushroom cloud going up from the first bomb 15 miles away at RAF Finningley where the Vulcan bombers flew from. A great film though that went beneath the radar and is almost cult status.
Incredible video essay - almost as unwatchable as the movie (through my own fear), but as vital. Because with 100 seconds to midnight on the Doomsday clock, this feels like this could happen this afternoon. Great work on the deep dive.
With the Ukraine War Crisis we are very close to nuclear war, possibly even closer than during the Cuban Missile Crisis. If hot heads prevail or someone makes a terrible mistake we could be living in the reality of this movie, if we live at all.
@@wingerding I mean, it was a figure of speech dude. Clearly I watched it to be able to refer to it. I should have said "hard to watch because of the subject matter". Thanks for the pedantry.
Great review. You sent me the link on Twitter and I thank you! I’m a movie buff and horror is my favorite genre and I believe this movie is the scariest ever made too. I’m still very affected when I rewatch it like I’m seeing it for the first time.
when this came out i was 14 and nuclear war was very much part of reality with adverts on tv etc..I remember watching this with my mum and dad and the total shock at what we could expect from a only newly thought of scenario,a nuclear winter lasting decades..Now we have mad Vlad threatening the same 38 years later... when will the world ever learn.?
I was 12 years old when this movie was broadcast on television in Australia. Your summation is dead on. This is a film everyone must see. This film as an adult is why I protested against nuclear weapons.
I saw ‘An American werewolf in London’ when I was 11 at my mates house. I had to walk home afterwards. A dog made a growling noise in an alleyway as I walked past. I must have broken Olympic records running home. I never looked back. I’ve never felt fear like that again.
I watched this movie after seeing this video in the hopes of giving myself a good scare after years of monotony, instead I traumatized myself to a degree so severe that now, a year after watching the movie, by just listening to you talk about it it has brought all the nausea right back and I feel like I got gut punched. This is indeed the scariest movie ever made.
I watched this when it was first shown in 84, I had nightmares for weeks after. I'd been listening to punk bands like Crass, Discharge and Conflict sing about nuclear war for years, this film was all the most graphic songs made into a film. You get absolutely nothing positive from it and that's what makes it so chilling.
