On "Doomsday"...
Posted by: Ryan Rotten
Press screenings have been pretty much nil for Neil Marshall's Doomsday. And no press screenings is usually a harbinger of - well, let's face it - dooooooom if there ever was one. This sort've blackout usually occurs for films like The Covenant or any of Sony's teen tripe, not an anticipated studio picture from Marshall who single-handedly renewed my faith in creature features with The Descent. Still, Doomsday, I'm happy to report, gets a huge f**kin' thumbs up.
I had the good pleasure of being surrounded by great company (pretty much the Masters of Horror) last night to check out the film on the Universal lot, and by the end of the screening, I was grinning from ear to ear.
The comparisons people have been making about Doomsday are valid. Yes, this has a dash of The Road Warrior. There's a lovin' spoonful of medieval action in here. But what's most apparent is the Escape from New York influence. And it's almost "structured by inspirations" that way as well. The first act carries a 28 Days Later-esque outbreak theme which segues into the quarantine of Scotland, the infilration of infected land (by one Major Sinclair, played by Rhona Mitra) and the explosive attempt to return home with enemies nipping at your heels. All of this moves at a breakneck, dizzying pace driven by Tyler Bates' pulsing orchestral and synth score that pays homage to John Carpenter's films.
If you haven't been paying attention to the TV spots and trailers, this is how the story goes down: The UK faces annihilation at the hands of the Reaper virus. Authorities move in, quarantine Scotland, erect a wall and leave those who couldn't escape to fend for themselves until they get sick and die. Many, many, many years later, another outbreak occurs. As The Dude would say, "new shit comes to light" and Major Sinclair and her partner Nelson (Bob Hoskins) are informed by the P.M. that immune survivors are living in and around the Glasgow area. He'd like Sinclair to breach Scotland's security wall, find a doctor by the name of Kane (Malcolm McDowell), throttle him for a cure to the Reaper virus and/or bring back a survivor so military docs can whip up a formula themselves.
Sinclair - driven by the fact that her mother was left behind in the quarantined zone - takes the mission, enters Scotland and immediately runs into trouble with a rogue community of punked-out cannibals (who throw one helluva show!) led by Sol (Craig Conway). He's a bratty, mohawked, raccoon-eyed f**ker who's pissed at his father (Kane) and intends to use Sinclair as his way back to civilization. That doesn't quite work out and soon Sinclair and her team are trekking across some quite lovely landscapes to see Kane. This crotchety ol' jaded bastard is holed up in a castle with a society of his own made up of Renaissance Fair rejects (look for a "gift shop" sign hanging on one castle wall) and heavily-armored knights.
I won't go much farther, story-wise, but just know Sinclair's mission pushes her through the paces and climaxes in one of the finest car chases I've seen. Imagine if George Miller had done a ton of blow and had a bunch of toys, blood and camera tricks to play with.
Doomsday is insanity squared, a side of Marshall we haven't seen before except for perhaps in the final battle in Dog Soldiers (Kevin McKidd was at last night's screening, the dude's a bad-ass) and the Juno/Sarah vs. The Crawlers fight in The Descent. And where he truly shines is when he strays off the "homage" path and injects his own brand of humor (re: the running gag with a dead girlfriend is pure f**kin' gold) and unabashed violence. And, man, does Marshall cut loose with the gore. "Severe head trauma" seems to be the running theme of the movie. Blood sprays, splats, drips, hits the camera lens and pops in an orgamsic celebration of wet, vibrant viscera.
You want carnage? You got it. Eyeball cameras? Check. Hot broads with tattoos? Double check. Dead rabbits? Uh-huh. Cows? Sure. Consumed human flesh? Hell yeah. Conway prancing around on stage one minute then breaking into a non-stop fury of screams for the rest of film? Yepper. Marshall gets in touch with a special brand of unbridled fury and puts it all on screen. And, Christ, does he make the picture look bigger than it cost. If anything, he let's his technical achievements get the best of him and leaves little room for deeper character beats than what has made it to the screen. As I said before, this film is plainly sectioned as Sinclair bounces from one major location to the next (from Sol's Road Warrior-theme park to Kane's medieval deadly land of enchantment). And scenes used to segue her travels that are normally reserved for "getting to know you" bits are replaced by vast sweeping landscape shots. Marshall allots no room for small talk and any intimacy between male/female characters is shared through gunfire, fleeting glances of chemistry or witty quips ("I think your plan is shit, but I'll stay with you.")
On the character-end of things. Hoskins role is far too small to be appreciated and Mitra delivers a fine deadpan turn. Snake Plissken, she's not, but damn do I want to see where her journey takes her in the next film (Marshall's hints that he's not done with Sinclair just yet).
Doomsday is a gloriously savage representation of a period of filmmaking we don't see much these days. The "f**k it all, throw it all in there!" battle cry of a filmmaker who wants to put his inspirations on the screen and quicken a few pulses in the audience. And although I still believe The Descent stands as a crowning achievement on Marshall's short resume, he deftly displays here what he can do on a grand scale and reveals he stills has plenty of tricks up his sleeve.
Much love for this film that made me feel very nostalgic.
8/10 rating!
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