When Disaster Strikes: A documentary that just wants to ruin your day

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, it depends on whether you find the sheer scale of destruction soothing or deeply stressful. If you want a structured story, you’re going to hate this. If you just want to sit there and watch buildings collapse into dust for an hour, it's weirdly hypnotic.

It feels less like a movie and more like someone emptied a dusty bin of newsreels onto the floor. There’s no host, no talking head to tell you why things are burning, just pure, unadulterated chaos.

Notes from the viewing:

• The footage of the San Francisco earthquake is remarkably grainy but still makes you wince.
• There is a specific shot of a flood that goes on so long I started checking my watch.
• The silence in the middle sections is honestly pretty heavy.

It’s strange how some of these disaster clips feel almost like a precursor to the slapstick energy found in Pretty Plungers, though obviously with a lot more property damage. One moment you're watching a house slide into a river, and you can’t help but think about how much stuff was inside that place. People's whole lives, just washed away into a muddy blur.

The film doesn't try to be profound. It doesn't try to teach you how to survive a volcanic eruption or a wildfire. It just shows you the mess and moves on to the next disaster. It’s almost impersonal in its cruelty.

I found myself comparing the pacing to the more controlled chaos in The Fire Cat. But while that film has a clear goal, this one is just a relentless march of rubble. It’s the kind of thing you watch when you're feeling a bit nihilistic on a Tuesday night. 🌋

Don't look for a lesson here. There isn't one. It’s just footage of nature being a total nightmare, and sometimes that's enough to keep you glued to the screen, even when it gets a little repetitive. It’s not great, but it’s certainly… memorable.