Doomed (2007) (V)

User Rating:

3.0/10   

Director:

Michael Su

Writers:

Patrick McManus (writer)
Patrick Sean McManus (writer)

Release Date:

3 April 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

One Word Title

Cast

Mary Christina Brown	...	Sybil (as M. C. Brown)
Steve Cryen	...	Reese
Sara Diaz	...	Leigh (as Sarah Diaz)
Desmond Faison	...	Craven
Aaron Gaffey	...	Wes
Michael Kehoe	...	Holagram Host
Andre McCoy	...	Trey Dog
Tim Piper	...	Campbell
Ward Roberts	...	Boyle
Drew Russell	...	Conrad
Kara Schaaf	...	Kyra
Vera Vanguard	...	Contestant / Zombies
Edwin Villa	...	Benny
Heidi Marie Wanser	...	Dawn
Monique Yates Jr.	...	Kuntz

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Company:

Automatic Media

Trivia:

The name of the island, Isola de Romero, takes its name from director George Romero, considered the father of the modern zombie movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: The girl in green holds a knife, a shot later she raises her hands without it, and then it comes back to her hand. Min: 40:20

Movie Connections:

References "Lost" (2004)

Scarier than "Scooby Doo"

Every so often lucky stars align in the making of a movie.

In this case, the lucky stars of crappy writing, cliché dialogue, ham acting, cheap special effects, and inept direction align to produce that all-too-common of beasts: a movie which can be released directly to the 99 cent bin. It's overpriced at that.

The thoughtful comments of other IMDb members have been spot on, and I wish I'd taken them seriously before wasting my time with this movie.

"Doomed" has a few redeeming values; there's some nice action choreography, and the visual cutting and the music aren't too bad. Not surprising, since they've been scalped from TV shows like 'Survivor'.

Still, there ought to be a law that a 'horror movie' should at one time or another actually try to _scare_ the audience. If anyone tried here, they failed miserably. The zombies aren't scary, and the characters are so one-dimensional that you don't care whether they live or die. This is a common problem with bad horror films.

The 'kicker', which is stolen wholesale from Lucio Fulci's "Zombie 2", is so predictable that you find yourself counting seconds until it happens. If they'd had the cones to steal more from Fulci, this movie might have been watchable.

The main problem this film faces is indecision about what kind of movie it wants to be, and then failing at each turn. 'Survivor' spoof? Not funny enough. Zombie horror? Not gory enough. Biting social commentary on the reality show industry? Not smart enough. Action flick? Sorry. Not even Jean-Claude Van Damme (whose acting skills I came to appreciate while watching this) could have helped this.

The 'computer game' analogy perpetrated on the audience adds the finishing kill shot to this miserable effort; instead of enriching the experience, it annoys the hell out of the viewer. Getting a score for each body blow or kill is only interesting if you're in control of the game and the score is yours. Otherwise, it's disturbing visual clutter.

While not the worst horror film I've seen recently (that honor might befall "House of the Dead", a *real* turkey), it is plenty awful. Zombie horror fans have nothing to get out of this one.

Look for the leading actors behind the counter of your local Wendy's. And, if you should step over the writer lying in some gutter in Your Town, U.S.A, give him a kick for me. He should have been eaten by Zombies.