Watch three harrowing short films that fill in the gaps between Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes might not begin until next week when the box office will undoubtedly go bananas. However, if you’re impatient about exploring the fascinating world of talking apes and viral outbreaks before the Matt Reeves movie hits theaters, then you’re in luck.
20th Century Fox has partnered with the VICE Motherboard to release a series of short films that are inspired by and explore the 10 year gap between 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and this summer’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. And all three short films help build a haunted, desolate world ripe for simian conquest.
The first film, “Year One,” is a six-minute trip into the madness that spread within 12 months of the viral outbreak hinted at during the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. In the video, a father and daughter fight for day-to-day survival in a post-apocalyptic landscape that looks closer to Contagion than Dawn of the Dead (and thus far scarier). Worst of all, the young girl’s mother has been quarantined. Directed by Isaiah Secret, “Spread of the Simian Flu: Before the Dawn of the Apes (Year One)” is quite the harrowing experience.
The second film, “Struggling to Survive: Before the Dawn of the Apes (Year Five)” or just “Year Five,” is directed by Daniel Thron and follows a different mother and daughter well after civilization has collapsed into the abyss, leaving only her and a daughter to fend for themselves in a wasteland of empty houses and broken dreams. But one place that isn’t empty is the woods, where the noises snap and break at night.
And in the third, and by far most ambitious, short film, director thirtytwo traces the decade-long journey of a shotgun from caring father-and-son to its apex predator owner during the fall of man and the spread of the Simian Flu. At 13 minutes in length, “The Only Gun Left (Year 10)” or just “Year 10,” follows a disparate series of personalities in this post-apocalyptic landscape and the heinous ends they all meet.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens on July 11, 2014.
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