Jon Peters Reviews: “Doomsday (Unrated DVD)”

The Film (taken from my original theatrical opinion):

With film making, things can just escape you. Whether it’s working with over ambition, more money, or whatever, a good intended film can lose its grounding and turn out to be a mess. Following ‘The Descent’, perhaps one of the scariest horror films in the last handful of years, ‘Doomsday’ is a horrendous follow-up. Neil Marshall was building a great start to his career, with the much-loved ‘Dog Soldiers’ and of course the fore mentioned ‘Descent’. I noticed lots of fans of his work were willing to ignore the signs of this film being bad. It wasn’t screened for press and little to no buzz was being generated. Sadly, we’ve should’ve seen the writing on the wall.

‘Doomsday’ opens with an overly long prologue setting up the future we’ll eventually see after a deadly virus rips through Scotland. The virus causes the infected to be zombie like, puking up mucus, skin problems, amongst other things. England decides to quarantine them, which creates society to fend for itself. With no hope, Scotland survivors revert to violence and cannibalism to survive. When some scientists noticed that there are possible immune survivors, they send out a military team to extract them to save the infective English, as the virus reemerges.

It’s simple enough, but the biggest problem is that you can clearly see Neil Marshall’s influences. While the influences of George Miller (’Mad Max’) and John Carpenter (’Halloween’, ‘Escape from New York’) should have inspired him to create something new or original, we just get a bizarre film that copies the best parts of his influences. The film is so over-the-top and crazy you do almost get caught up it in. It’s hard to exactly say what the film is or where was it going for those reasons. It starts off like a ‘28 Days Later’, then shifts to ‘Escape from New York’, then that leads to a rip on ‘Road Warrior’, then ‘Excalibur’, then finishes with a ‘Mad Max’ ending. Oh, in-between all of that add some Umberto Lenzi’s ‘Nightmare City (1980)’ with a mock John Carpenter score. Insane.

You just can’t take it seriously or even at a fun level. There are some moments where the film might be a fun throwback, but the constant shifting tones and gears, disrupt everything. Obviously the trailers were touting it as some post-apocalyptic film, and it really isn’t. I think the marketing team had just as hard as time trying to sell the movie as I am writing this review. While there’s some good stuff, like the heroine’s video camera eye, the gore, some scenes like the end car chase, it’s just some parts and we needed the whole to work or enjoy.

Whatever the reason this film fails, I hope Neil Marshall notices. He’s a solid up and coming genre talent. Maybe he’s better with lower budgets or maybe he needed to take a step back and reread the script. It’s a mess of a film.

The DVD:

Audio/Video:The picture quality is near flawless. What else do you expect from a new movie these days? Even with the ‘unrated’ footage put in I noticed no visible distractions of any kind. The audio is booming, giving your sub and surrounds a working out. I hope you got a good system, because this film is constant noise and bass.

Audio Commentary: Marshall sits down with the cast as they have a fun recollection of the film getting made and some actor’s even note how disgusting the final product is. Did they read the script? Decent track, but nothing to noteworthy.

‘Anatomy of Catastrophe’: is a quick break down on how they created the look of the post-apocalyptic world Marshall envisioned.

‘Visual Effects and Wizardry of Doomsday’: explores the effects. I use to really like these types of featurettes, now they’re just bland.

‘Devices of Death’: explores the cool weapons in the film.

‘Doomsday’ is a miss for me. I can see people digging it’s rather ‘out-there’ approach and enjoying it as a midnight movie, but why not just enjoy the film’s he ripped off? Also, I couldn’t tell the unrated footage from the theatrical footage. Skip.