As a film critic, there have been a few times when I can’t wait for a movie to end. I have never turned one off in the middle of it, as that would be unfair. However, while watching Doomsday Stories to review, I almost wanted doomsday to come; that’s how bad of a flick it is, yet, I still watched it all the way through.
Doomsday Stories is precisely what it sounds like. It is an anthology of doomsday stories being told by a man named Zorack (Herman). Each story is different, but all tie into the idea of what doomsday could be or in this case is. A couple of segments deal with cannibalism or zombies, and others deal with things such as super soldiers and time travel.
With the number of different narratives being told, one would think that there is something for everyone. Unfortunately, that is not the case this time around. This anthology is catered to those that like gore, violence, and bad films, and not in The Room kind of way. However, there was one narrative that had at least an ounce of emotion in it. It happens to be the first segment, written and directed by Derek Braasch, titled A Broken Promise. It deals with a man trying to keep a promise to his late wife, even after their child also dies. However, even with the general themes, the plot overall wasn’t very good.
“…an anthology of doomsday stories…”
Aside from the lousy storytelling and almost comedic acting, despite the segments meant to be thrilling and dramatic, some of the effects, props, and makeup are ridiculously bad. With the number of guns used in the entire movie, not one actually went off or was made to look like it did. Whenever a trigger was pulled, the cameras would be angled in a way where it did not have to show gunfire. In theory, that is a smart move, but it looked funny in the long run. And the one time the camera did shoot from an angle that showed the barrel, nothing at all came out of the gun.
Throughout all of Doomsday Stories, the effects were quite inconsistent. There were a lot of computer effects used in the picture, so it is weird to me that none of the directors felt the need to use computer effects when it came to gunfire. One story used effects so much that it looked like a video game from the early 2000s. In fact, a majority of the film looked as though it was made in the early 2000s.
I love anthologies when they are done right. I feel that anthologies give an audience a look at directors, writers, and actors who would have not been seen otherwise. Sadly, Doomsday Stories doesn’t make the cut of a good movie, even for an anthology. With a runtime of two hours, this is way too long to sit through. Had this been made into an episodic series of shorts, it may have been tolerable.
"…anthologies give an audience a look at directors, writers, and actors who would have not been seen otherwise."
