A vision of the end of all things

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2013)

For me, this film is at its heart an existential horror film, not an action film. Within moments of the start of the film, the unknown threat is upon the protagonist and his family. Very soon, the dimmest outline of the beast come to devour the world is shown. The desperate race to flee, to fight, to combat, to do anything in response to that which exists only in my most symbolic nightmares is on.
The Beast moves with speed, fury and determination, but its full dimensions always remains unclear, unknown and terrifying. It hunts, it lurks and it waits for every opportunity to consume mankind. In the face of this unknown devourer, our protagonist carries on with his mission with only the barest glimmer of hope of success or understanding of what he is facing, while all around him the world is consumed.
As I left the theatre and made my way home overwhelmed by what I saw, a dream I had long ago that marked me arose. I saw the destroyer of worlds, the unthing, from beyond again, its long grim strides consuming existence with every step. Everything in the destroyer's path was annihilated and was as if it all had never been. No past, no present, no future remained in the wake of the unthing from beyond. The only thing to do was to flee before the end of existence, desperate to cling what remained as nothingness strode towards me.
Allegorically, World War Z,with its teeming rivers of once human tentacles of destruction depicted the unthing of my dreams to me. The terrible all consuming horror summoned forth grips me still and I cry and whimper in fear. The destroyer of worlds was evoked in World War Z, as clearly to me as it was to Dr. Oppenheimer when he witnessed the first atomic bomb and the first unthing was put within man's grasp.
I knew fear again, the fear that existential horror films rely upon to work and I knew that World War Z had done its job admirably. If you enjoy such films and enjoy glimpses of the destroyer of worlds, this one's for you.