Contagion and
Outbreak in the immediate days following the COVID-19 shutdown last March, and was reiterated just last week with the viral response to the trailer for the upcoming
Godzilla vs. Kong, a movie monster that’s long represented post-Hiroshima anxiety over nuclear fallout.
When the COVID-19 pandemic has made such disaster film scenarios uncannily real, what’s the lingering appeal of the genre?
“I think we crave the structure to see something bad happen but not have to experience it ourselves,” says Dr Katie Greenaway, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Melbourne. “You can simulate the scenarios in your mind and imagine how you would respond. Sometimes that can help people feel like they’re building up resilience resources.”