Doomsday Stories (2023) Review
Doomsday Stories (2023) Review
The great virus started in 2019. In the first 2 years almost 5 million people died worldwide. In 2022 a new strain hit and 5 million people a month were dying. No vaccine was effective. This created high gas prices, food shortage and war. Nothing really mattered anymore. People were dying of starvation and disease and nations were at war. In 2025 a final strain called “Meanies” pretty much wiped-out mankind. Only 8,000 people worldwide survived. Meanies was a man-made virus meant to help cure people, but instead created mutants and savages that outnumbered the humans. One man Zorack survived this Hell on Earth. He was neither good or bad but in this society who can judge. He did what he could to survive. Now 30 years later after the great risen of and Balrog he lives the simple life hidden away. The meanies died out and very few live to cause any problems. Zorack over the years has hidden from what is left of society. He would like to share stories from the old world. This is Doomsday Stories.
The wraparound segments involve a survivor by the name of Zorack (Phil Herman). In his possession he has a book, the book in question being the catalyst for the stories that unfold within this two-hour anthology. He remind us that he has plenty of time to read it but never seems to and I also under the impression that the woman who previously had the book was the one that scribed the tales that make up DOOMSDAY STORIES. If so, then they can’t be based on fact as she is never seen to cross paths with anyone else that populates the other stories.
DOOMSDAY STORIES starts off nicely with A BROKEN PROMISE, written and directed by Derek Braasch. This is effectively a gentle tale about one man, Rick (Justin Bauer) and his dog, as they meander around on a quest after losing his pregnant wife to the virus. It’s not perfect, I mean who knew that following an apocalyptic event that you’d still be required to walk around with your dog on a leash. Also considering there’s a shortage of food no one looks malnourished and it’s very apparent that the apocalypse hasn’t affected anyone’s ability to impact on the upkeep of their houses.
That said A BROKEN PROMISE is my favourite part of the anthology. Admittedly not a lot happens but the cast are likeable, the pacing is measured and unrushed and it tells a reasonable story there. It also takes up around forty-five minutes of the anthology’s two-hour runtime and that was fine by me as I enjoyed being in their company.
However, from that point on it’s all downhill as we are then stuck with the stupidest of women in BOMB THREATS, directed by James Panetta, who doesn’t believe that all hell is about to break lose and ends up sharing a bomb shelter with a right weirdo. How she manages to get mobile signals when outside bombs are exploding – and that also goes for the guy in the ‘bomb shelter’ can receive calls too – I don’t know. There were no surprises here, and it made for miserable viewing. It wasn’t fun to watch and instead become aggravating all too quickly.
Overall, there is more of an unevenness in tone to the segments in DOOMSDAY STORIES, there’s no flow, they don’t connect, which didn’t matter as much with their HORRORTALES flicks as they were about showcasing different horror stories. It’s trashy but unfortunately not TROMA trashy. It’s great that there’s an eagerness to get stories up there on screen but sometimes you can’t help wishing that they had thought things through a little more.
