In 2005 Scotland’s Neil Marshall made a little horror movie called The Descent, in which a grieving mother went caving in the Appalachians with a group of female friends. Tense, taut and savagely moving, it got a lot of people excited. This futuristic action thriller boasts another emotionally damaged pioneer, but the comparisons end there. The Descent explored female machismo. Doomsday provides a fantasy figure: the ballsy babe.
As Major Eden Sinclair — the mother-fixated law enforcer sent to Scotland in search of a cure for a newly-active plague — Rhona Mitra is a liability. The 31-year-old Londoner may have the liquid limbs of a dancer, but acting-wise she’s as flexible as concrete.
Doomsday is knowingly ludicrous — at one point, we get cannibal punks doing the can-can. Alas, the "mayhem" follows a predictable route. The various stereotypes (corrupt politician, psycho renegade, terrified ingénue) do battle, with the fittest surviving. The director obviously wants to pay homage to B-movie classics such as Escape From New York and Mad Max (two of the characters are called Miller and Carpenter, ho ho). In the process, his own vision gets lost. Sod humanity.
Will someone please save Neil Marshall.
Doomsday
Cert: 18
