If You Find Human Extinction Terrifying, It Sure Is

The 5th Wave is a movie, in all seriousness, that shows the beginning of the end of the world for humans. When the Earth is invaded by aliens — known as "Others" — life as Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) knew it is over. No more high school parties and cute dresses; instead Cassie is forced to say goodbye to the modern world after the Others begin their invasion. But The 5th Wave isn't just about an alien invasion, it's about human extinction. The movie is the most recent in a new genre of films adapted from Young Adult novels featuring young women fighting for their lives in a dystopian future. However, unlike The Hunger Games and Divergent before, The 5th Wave actually shows the events that brought down our modern society — or the Waves, as they are called in the film. With all the death and destruction happening on screen instead of off, it's only natural to wonder if The 5th Wave is scary. It is, in case you're wondering.

Don't get me wrong, The 5th Wave is no horror movie. There are no dark, creepy hallways, no excessive blood and gore. But, if you get spooked seeing shots of covered dead bodies piled up on a football field, be warned. That said, it's nothing worse than the violence shown in The Hunger Games or the dead and diseased bodies shown in Contagion. Still, it is kind of freaky to watch the world being torn apart by aliens bit by bit.

In the first 45 minutes of the film, you see the first four waves of the attack on the humans. The first: Darkness — an electromagnetic pulse that wipes out all electricity. The second, Destruction, comes in the form of an earthquake that causes tsunamis around the world, and the third, Infection, is an avian flu that kills a majority of the human population. Watching each wave hit the screen is pretty striking, but not too terrifying. And, if you can make it through that, the movie later becomes more of a straightforward action thriller.

After the initial invasion, the Others become more of an ominous...