With Halloween just a day away and New Year's Eve around the corner, this is the time of year I once again think about “The End of Days.” Remember the nervous anticipation of Y2K? Or the rampaging fury of Hurricane Katrina? We don't just fear, predict and anticipate the end of the world. We also find enjoyment in watching and acting out these horrific scenarios.

Has role-playing apocalyptic games desensitized us? Does watching the Walking Dead prepare us? Are we really ready for alien invasions, zombies, and other end-of-the-world events?

According to Nostradamus, the Mayans, Hollywood, and the many lores of various cultures throughout time of Ragnarök, the Day of Judgment, the Rapture etc. the world should have or will be ending (sometime) soon and if this dismal end is to come, then I must ask... are we ready?

In honor of Halloween and the approaching New Year and of course for all you doomsday preppers, survivalists and pessimists out there: here’s a list of movies, television shows, books and music to prepare, educate, and keep you company for the end of civilization as we know it. Enjoy!

Books / Comics

The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled: no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living.

Hoarders, Doomsday Preppers, and the Culture of Apocalypse by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster
The culture of twenty-first century America largely revolves around narcissistic death, violence, and visions of doom. As people are bombarded with amoral meta narratives that display an almost complete lack of empathy for others on television, in films, and on the internet, their insatiable appetite for excessive pain and routine death reflects an embrace of an endlessly warring culture. Foster explores this culture of the apocalypse, from hoarding and gluttony to visions of the post-apocalyptic world.

The Massive by Brian Wood
In a post-war, post-Crash, post-disaster, post-everything world, the environmental action trawler Kapital scours the earth's oceans for its missing sistership, The Massive, while struggling to redefine its core mission. Captain Callum Israel, a man who dedicated his life to the ocean, now must ask himself--as our planet dies--what it means to be an environmentalist after the world's already ended.

2012 Extinction or Utopia: Doomsday Prophecies Explored by J. Allan Danelek
Is 2012 the end of the world as we know it? From 2012 to global warming to worldwide pandemics, doomsday scenarios play an increasingly large role in our lives. Do any of these apocalyptic scenarios pose a real, urgent risk? Why does our modern culture continue to embrace these bleak beliefs, and how are they affecting our world?

The Practical Preppers Complete Guide to Disaster Preparedness by Scott Hunt
The world we live in is an unstable one. From natural disasters of biblical proportions to concerns about the economic downturn and government shutdown, the hits just keep on coming. No matter the concern, the solutions are the same. Scott Hunt, the owner of Practical Preppers—the consultant firm featured on every episode of the hit Nat Geo show "Doomsday Preppers" (recent episodes had 15 million viewers)—and an experienced engineer and homesteader, offers readers a complete and detailed guide to sustainable living.

Tools for Survival: What You Need to Survive When You're On Your Own by James Wesley Rawles
Details the tools needed to survive anything from a short-term disruption to a long-term, grid-down scenario. Field-tested and comprehensive, Tools for Survival is certain to become a must-have reference for the burgeoning survivalist/prepper movement.

New York City-Based Movies

Cloverfield

New York is suddenly under attack from a Godzilla-like monster who stomps through midtown, destroying everything and everybody in sight.

I am Legend
Robert Neville is the last human survivor in what is left of New York City. A pandemic has left only 1% of the population alive and most of those who survived are no longer human.

The Day After Tomorrow
After climatologist Jack Hall is largely ignored by U.N. officials when presenting his environmental concerns, his research proves true when an enormous "super storm" develops, setting off catastrophic natural disasters throughout the world.

Other Movies

The Road
A holocaust has destroyed the world. Civilization lies in ruins. Nothing grows. The Man and his young son, the Boy, struggle across the devastated, post-apocalyptic landscape, pushing their belongings in a shopping cart, hoping to reach the coast. It is almost impossible to find any food. Life on the road is a deadly game of hide, seek, and devour with bloodthirsty bands of roving, starving, survivalist types, many of whom have fallen into cannibalism. The Man carries the curse of remembering the world as it once was, while for the Boy, the world has always been destroyed, any intimation that life was once different is foreign to his existence. Love--of the Man and Boy for each other--is the one testament to a humanity that remains, even in the face of total chaos.

Deep Impact
As a comet approaches the earth which might not be destroyed or diverted before it reaches earth, each individual struggles in the face of extinction to find what most matters to him or her.

The Matrix
The day-in, day-out world is the real world is merely perception. In reality it is a hoax perpetrated by an all-powerful artificial intelligence that control us. A small group of humans has found a way out of the construct, and is now fighting for the future of the human race.

Reign of Fire
A brood of fire-breathing dragons emerges from the earth and begins setting fire to everything, establishing dominance over the planet.

Resident Evil
A team of paramilitary commandos must battle flesh-eating undead, killer mutant dogs and a supercomputer's deadly defenses before an unleashed virus consumes humanity.

Television Shows / Documentaries

Revolution
In this epic adventure thriller, a family struggles to reunite in a post-apocalyptic American landscape: a world of empty cities, local militias and heroic freedom fighters, where every single piece of technology-computers, planes, cars, phones, even lights-has mysteriously blacked out-forever. A grand romantic saga about family-not just the family born into, but the family chosen. A swashbuckling journey of hope and rebirth, seen through the eyes of one strong-willed young woman.

Sleepy Hollow
Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison), a British expatriate who dies in the American Revolution, is revived in upstate New York during the time of the cell phone - as is the evil Headless Horseman, who plans to annihilate mankind! Teaming with a feisty police lieutenant (Nicole Beharie), Crane races to vanquish the newly unearthed dark forces - or face the impending apocalypse. Contains all episodes of season 1, including the 2-part season finale!

The 100
Ninety-seven years after nuclear Armageddon destroyed the planet, humanity's sole survivors live on the Ark, an aging space station experiencing overpopulation and inadequate resources. When faced with difficult choices, the Ark leaders decide to send 100 juvenile prisoners back to Earth to test its living conditions.

Doomsday Preppers
Examines the beliefs, motivations, and day-to-day routines of a number of Americans who have adopted a lifestyle centered on survival.

American Blackout
What if the Doomsday Preppers were right all along? Hacking into urban infrastructures isn't science fiction anymore, it's in the news every day. A 90-minute docudrama reveals in gritty detail the impact of what happens when a cyber attack on the United States takes down the power grid. The question is: when the lights go out, what do we do next?

Songs / Albums

Halloween After Dark

"Bad moon rising" by Creedence Clearwater
"Don't fear the reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult

Document by R.E.M

"It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

Night Visions by Imagine Dragons