As a seasoned horror film fan, there is very little that scares me, except … natural disaster and doomsday movies, like Netflix’s latest hit, Leave the World Behind.
Boasting a superstar cast with Academy Award winners Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali, this chillingly realistic film centers on two families, led by advertising exec Amanda Sanford (Roberts) and secret government analyst G.H.Scott (Ali), who find themselves sharing the latter’s Upstate New York vacation home during what turns out to be a U.S. toppling terrorist attack.
What starts out as a well-deserved family break for the Sandfords (Amanda, her husband Clay, played by Ethan Hawke, son Archie and daughter Rose) , quickly turns into a nightmare when G.H. and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la) return to the beach house, to escape the mass panic a sudden satellite outage has caused in the Big Apple. Cut off from communication with the outside world, suddenly being fed incorrect information with weird pamphlet drops by a mysterious drone and having to face off with a survivalist asshole neighbour (perfectly played by the always creepy Kevin Bacon), our newly blended family will have to rely on each other to make it through.
Throw in a timed siren that releases radiation though the airwaves, hints of racist undertones from neighbours, the local wildlife ready to attack our cast and the discovery of an underground bunker kitted out with every 90s kid’s dream DVD collection and everything else you need to survive the apocalypse, and you have the makings of the ultimate 2023 disaster flick.
Netflix has had some hits and misses with their year-end disaster offerings. In 2020, Death to 2020, by the Black Mirror creators , was a huge success because honestly, after a f***tard of a year, the world needed the relief. The following year’s special didn’t do as well and the Leonardo DiCaprio-led Don’t Look Up was a bit much for all of us living through unprecedented times.
I have a feeling that Leave the World Behind is going to have a split audience opinion. Those of us who are quite familiar with the more cerebral horror films that dominated the genre before all of the reboots this year, including Hereditary and Get Out, will appreciate those one continuous take wonders, the needle drop after a big emotional moment, the barely subtle inference that what takes place onscreen here is currently happening in at least four countries right now. Even more chilling is hearing Ali’s character spell out the exact three stages of an attack that is needed to destabilize a country and realizing how relatively easy it would actually be to implement.
The rest of the population may just enjoy Ali and Roberts rocking out to Next’s 2000 hit Too Close, played on a vinyl record!!! Man, I felt old AF watching this scene but it is also hands down one of my favourites:
Roberts has always been one of my favourite actresses (she ought to be, considering my very liberal 90s parents took me to see Pretty Woman as my first cinema experience when I was 5 years old. Forget Prince Charming – give me Richard Gere in a tuxedo and a limo. Judge my folks all you want, it’s ok. I tease my mom about this constantly π). Her character Amanda in Leave the World Behind may just be my favourite one of hers yet. Amanda, as an advertising exec, is tired of humanity after seeing the deeply f***ed things they are willing to do to each other for the next big thing. After the pandemic, I feel the same way.
I have never felt as seen as I did , watching this scene:
Leave the World Behind isn’t the Christmas family fare you’re looking for. What it is , is a vehicle for you to start thinking about the state of the world right now and what exactly you want your 2024 and beyond to look like if your country (ahem, loadshedding, election year and rising crime levels, South Africans) goes tits up.
Leave the World Behind is available for streaming on Netflix.