After a virus wipes out most of humanity, a lone survivor wanders the ruin of the old world. All he has for company is a journal he took from a corpse, filled with stories of the apocalypse.
A realistic depiction of the chaos that such an event would cause, Doomsday Stories cleverly, but not too closely references the coronavirus pandemic, whilst rarely straying from the realms of believability. Made up of four stories, all varying in their luridness, there is an appropriately disjointed feeling to the whole thing, with everyone from governments to individuals witnessing the collapse of society from their own unique view point. Which begs the question; 'How did all these stories end up in the same book?'
Having met our storyteller, Zorack (Phil Herman), on his travels, we are quickly thrown into the horrors of the MEANIES virus apocalypse. Beginning with 'Broken Promise', the story of a man and his dog searching for food and simply trying to survive. Shot in a cool western style, this is by far the strongest of the four stories, as we follow Rick (Justin Bower) on his quest to fulfil a promise to his dead wife. After that things get a tad too depraved with 'Bomb Shelter', in which a woman (Debbie D) makes the mistake of sharing a bomb shelter with a stranger. Apart from being a strong warning about hanging out with people you don't know, sadly it's little more than torture porn.
Thankfully the movie picks up from here with 'Forever Man', a particularly messed up - but surprisingly believable - story surrounding a government trade deal to sell organs harvested from the remaining survivors to other countries. In return for donating some of his organs, the man known as "Frank 21" is turned into some kind of super soldier who eventually gets tired of being a government drone. Watch out for some creative props and make-up effects with this one. Which brings us to the final story. Having creeped you out enough, Doomsday Stories then blindsides you with a spangly sci-fi, time travel romp in which a man from the future with a familiar name (Joel D. Wynkoop) attempts to prevent the outbreak of the MEANIES virus. Admittedly this last one is a little weird. Kind of Back to the Future meets Shaun of the Dead.
All throughout Doomsday Stories it is clear that a great deal of creativity and ingenuity has gone into creating these stories. Everything from good performances, to the locations, set design, props and special effects. Although there are times when the world appears too clean - like seeing someone get phone signal whilst their city is bombed to oblivion, or ignoring what appears to be fresh bread while hunting for food in the spotless kitchen of a supposedly abandoned restaurant. The movie is also a little on the long side. However it is filled with some very human stories, that for the most part are at least in some way relatable. Sometimes scarily so.
7/10
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