The 90's and Disaster Movies

After last class, I started to think about other examples of where we've seen pre-millenial tension and anxiety, and it didn't take too long to remember the crap ton (roughly 7.99993 times greater than a metric ton) of disaster movies that started to downpour upon us starting in the mid-1990's.  With the rise of computer graphics during this time, responsible for stunning visual effects sequences in movies like Jurassic Park, and perhaps some influence from the coming new millennium, a revival in the disaster genre had been sparked.  

One of the first successful movies to come from this was Twister, and that reminded me of a made for tv movie that I had forgotten about until just now... Night of the Twisters.  I was a little obsessed with this movie back in the day (it was on then Fox Family almost constantly).  For those unfamiliar with the plot, here's a little refresher, straight from IMDB: 

"A Nebraska farm community is plagued by a storm with a series of tornados acting against normal patterns. Dan is left at home to look after his baby brother Ryan along with his friend Arthur while Dan's mother is at work. His stepfather goes to check on his grandmother. When a tornado destroys the house, Dan and Arthur attempt to re-unite the family."

This movie, and many others that followed (Independence Day, Deep Impact, Volcano, The Perfect Storm, just to name a few) really played on some of the fears society were having leading into the year 2000, and with the idea of an impending apocalypse, interest in these movies were massive.  Even now we still like to see Earth get its ass kicked in as many ways possible, Cloverfield being one of the more recent examples of disaster movies.  If an influx in disaster movies leading up to a possible apocalyptical millennium, then perhaps we're going to see a similar increase in world destructiveness in movies leading up to the next expected end of the world date in 2012.  

A little info on disaster genre

AND the best clip from Night of the Twisters

(yes, with the flying fridge of death!)