October 29, 2019

Fave films of the century so far - 2008 - Doomsday


Cannibals. Scotland steampunks. Jousting. Apt musical numbers. Expanding foam and exploding heads. Bob Hoskins in full flow. Majestic horses and car chases that would put Mad Max 2 to shame. Gunned down rabbits and Sean Pertwee roasting on an open fire. Just some of the ingredients in my favourite film of 2008. Seriously it is bonkers.


In 2008 a virus tore apart Scotland, turning it's inhabitants into bloodthirsty homicidal maniacs. The only response was to wall off Scotland and let the survivors rip each other apart so that everything below this new Hadrian's Wall could be saved. In 2035 the virus reappears in London and so in an attempt to find a cure Major Eden Sinclair is sent North to infiltrate Scotland and find what's needed. A straight forward mission predictably goes arseways because things have gotten.......strange in the last 3 decades.


I know it sounds cliched. It is, there's no denying it. But it's also a brilliantly entertaining watch and one directed by Neil Marshall, a man who knows both how to put an action scene together and who knows how to lay on the gore and the giggles with aplomb. It starts like any run of the mill zombie flick before turning into a spy film and as the story moves forward it turns into something different altogether. It's big budget madness, an extreme mish mash of genres, horror, road movie, action, medieval(!!?), splatter, musical and everything in between. It takes the kitchen sink approach and amazingly it comes together and it's all led by a committed turn from Rhona Mitra as a female action star who's name should be mentioned in the same sentences as Ellen Ripley and Beatrix Kiddo. Sadly the film never found an audience and it's a pity because it could have been massive. It's so much fun but it's violence and it's jumble of genres put people off. Now that it's on netflix hopefully it will find a new audience because it deserves to.


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