In our last exciting episode we were talking about bad post-apocalyptic movies from the 80's. So that's where we start now.
I think the first movie I ever saw that could count as post-apoc would have to be The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price.
Of course, this isn't an 80's movie, and isn't at all akin to the sort of cheesy flick I wanna talk about. But it's still the first one I ever saw.
The next one must have been Damnation Alley starring George Peppard an Jan-Micheal Vincent. This movie was cool! First off there was the Ultimate RV, a twelve-wheeled monster of an all-terrain vehicle designed to go anywhere in a ruined world. There were giant scorpions and man-eating cockroaches. This was sort of a slightly more realistic future than Thundarr presented: no magic, no super-tech. Somehow, though, there was enough gas to run the Super Rv and a motorcycle.
The next one that really stands out in my head is the Ralph Bakshi movie, Wizards. This movie is just haunting and disturbing, but not really in a bad way. The narration and the still-picture slide show in the beginning I find particularly haunting. Then there's the weird animation style. It's cartoony, as opposed to trying to render the weird creatures and characters realistically. Then there's the weird rotoscoping and the subject matter itself. Weird but cool. 
There was a movie called She, it starred Sandahl Bergman (she was Conan's girlfriend Valeria in Conan the Barbarian). It was supposedly "based" on the H.R.Haggard story She, but the only resemblance I could see were in the title. In a post-apoc world survivors trade goods with one another until these raiders show up and cause a ruckus for no good reason. They kidnap this girl, so her brother and her boyfriend go to rescue her, knowing full well they'll probably die. But instead, they hook up with She, a powerful warrior-woman and she-who-cannot-die (thanks to her "magic" sauna in a cave in her village). Through an episodic series of weird misadventures, including an incident with a werewolf commune, a mutant bridge guard who multiplies every time you hit him, and that standard stand-by a gladiatorial arena; our heroes find the bad guys and (spoiler alert!) rescue the girl. It was weird stuff, seemed to have a definite Gamma World vibe to me.
Like I said, Terrible And Silly!
There were a bunch of other flicks, too. After a while they kind of blend together. But movies like The New Barbarians, and Land of Doom show us that people wear way too much leather in the post-apocalyptic desert.
Battletruck and Wheels of Fire show us that there will still be plenty of gas and bullets (and yet food and water will be scarce), and that all the vehicles will get pimped up with spikes. 
Meanwhile, films like She-Wolves of the Wasteland and Stryker show us that there will be a great abundance of hot chicks, and a few cool guys...but apparently not enough clothes to go around (at least if you're adverse to the above-mentioned black leather). Are you ready for the punchline? I've NEVER seen a single Mad Max movie. Bits and pieces, but not the whole film. But I've seen all of these flicks, and each one has left its indelible mark on the world I've created...or ended(?)...for the stories I'm writing.
And there were a few others, too. But my point is this: My post-apocalyptic world is not just drab and gray. And there are more dangers lurking about than just zombies.
When my world suffered its great calamity, there was advanced science. AIs, robots, weird chemical medicines, advanced tech for daily appliances, experimental prototypes. These things still exist and are half-understood (at best) by people trying to use them and repair the damage. Weird chemicals and radiation have cause innumerable mutant sub-races and new hybrid species.
Wanna know more? Of course ya do! So come on back next time, and I'll share some more about my upcoming science fantasy post-apocalyptic adventure series: Mutant World! Until then, I wish you...
Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell
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