The Demo Site

The Mohawk-sporting villain of Neil Marshall’s futuristic action movie drives a Frankenstein car cobbled together from spare parts, decorated with human skulls and flayed skin. Marshall, likewise, lashes together elements from ’80s post-apocalyptic movies such as ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Escape from New York’ to create a supercharged monster of a movie. Parts cannibalised from other movies are bolted on with less success, but Marshall’s adrenalin-fuelled skill and enthusiasm propel the action forward with reckless abandon.

Twenty-five years after the Reaper virus prompted the quarantining of Scotland behind a modern-day Hadrian’s Wall, the disease resurfaces in London. The only hope for an antidote lies with a group of survivors found north of the border. At the behest of the government and her fatherly mentor, Department of Domestic Security chief Bill Nelson (Bob Hoskins), Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) and her crack team of soldiers are dispatched to bring back the cure.

Behind the wall, they find Glasgow presided over by post-punk impresario Sol (Craig Conway) and his tattooed tribe of Marauders; but after escaping through a hillside tunnel, they emerge into a medieval world ruled over by castle-dwelling tyrant king Kane (Malcolm McDowell). With Rhona Mitra’s cold-blooded heroine front and centre, the tense group dynamics and ensemble acting that served Marshall so well in ‘Dog Soldiers’ and ‘The Descent’ are less evident.

Still, the violent fight scenes, explosive set-pieces and retro-future settings fire the imagination. Appropriately, given its throwback pedigree, ‘Doomsday’ culminates in a car chase, accompanied by Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s apt ‘Two Tribes’.