In the near future, a highly contagious virus decimates the population of Scotland, leaving the politicians in London little choice but to quarantine an entire portion of Great Britain. A wall is built along the ancient Roman borderline, keeping the infected in and the rest of the country supposedly safe. Over thirty years later, the “Reaper virus” has begun to resurface in the heart of England. A special team of soldiers and scientists are sent into Scotland, through the heavily-guarded wall, to find a man who had been working on a cure when he was left behind. The current inhabitants of Scotland are savages, crazed and cannibalistic. The team only has 48 hours to find the doctor and a cure before being picked up.
The leader of the team, Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra, “Shooter”) has a quiet intensity but very little to say – think a female version of Snake Plissken from John Carpenter‘s “Escape” films, but without the witty lines. Sinclair isn’t able to carry the film alone – her back story is interesting but underused within the context of the plot – but she gets little assistance from underdeveloped secondary characters. Bob Hoskins (“Hollywoodland”) adds a grizzled father figure to Eden’s life, but he is quickly shuttled aside. The monstrous inhabitants of Scotland look like Brit punk outcasts from the ’70s and are not particularly frightening, despite a lot of screaming and eventual blood-letting.
Destined for a trip to the evening schedule of the Sci-Fi channel, “Doomsday” is an unfulfilled promise by Marshall instead of an exciting science fiction feature.
Rated R for strong, bloody violence, language and some sexual content/nudity.
