From child sexual abuse to downright physical torture inflicted by government agents, the horrors created by Collins for her fictional world are very much rooted in reality. It’s a bleak, bleak scenario that is made even bleaker by the fact that Collins doesn’t make any effort to soft-cushion the violence perpetrated by the Capitol. After all, they are celebrities, Hunger Games’ victors that must not undo the illusion of the Capitol’s mercy towards its children. And what makes it even worse is that they are forced to suffer while putting on a good show for the people of Panem. Even those who were supposed to be the select few that managed to escape their unfortunate circumstances are thrown right back into the fire as soon as they are done with the process that should’ve made them untouchable. In Panem, there is no reprieve from the system’s cruelty. None of the victors are safe: even the elderly, such as District 4’s Mags ( Lynn Cohen), are game for being killed for the Capitol’s entertainment. In Catching Fire, former victors that were promised a life free of the torments of the Hunger Games are all brought back into the arena for an all-stars edition of the event, in a move that is seen as a betrayal even by the people of the Capitol. ![]() The story of Finnick Odair ( Sam Claflin), who was forced into prostitution at the age of 14 after winning his edition of the Hunger Games, is quite representative. Up to this day, the series lives on as the greatest YA dystopia of its time, with its enduring popularity even granting it an upcoming prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, while its most popular little sibling, Divergent, didn’t even get a final movie.īut even if you manage to survive the Hunger Games arena with your mental health relatively unscathed, you are still subject to the whims of President Snow ( Donald Sutherland) and his inner circle. ![]() Much like the success of Twilight outshone that of Warm Bodies and Beautiful Creatures, so did The Hunger Games enjoy a popularity much greater than that of its successors. However, not all young adult dystopias were cut from the same cloth. In its wake came movies and franchises like The Giver, Maze Runner, Ender’s Game, and, of course, Divergent. A few years later in 2008, Twilight gave rise to the teen paranormal romance craze, and in the 2010s, it was time for the teenage dystopias to take the central stage.ĭirected by Gary Ross and starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games was merely the first of many YA dystopias that took over screens up until the middle of the decade. The Harry Potter saga had hit the screens for the first time little more than a decade prior in 2001, kickstarting a wave of fantasy movies based on books aimed at tweens and teens, from The Chronicles of Narnia to the ill-fated His Dark Materials film franchise. ![]() When the first Hunger Games movie came out in 2012, the world of cinema had just recently discovered the power of young adult literature as a source of inspiration.
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