Doomsday (2008) Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray Review

Plot: When the first outbreak of the Reaper virus hit Scotland, Eden Sinclair was one of the last to escape containment and had to leave her mother behind. Twenty-five years later, Maj. Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) leads a team back into the hot zone to find a counteragent to the virus, which has re-emerged in London. She and her comrades wage a desperate battle for survival against feral survivors, as they try to prevent it from ushering in a new dark age.

Review: It’s hard to believe this 4K release is from Shout! Factory who also did Timecop; where the JCVD classic got a barebones disc, Doomsday is packed with fantastic special features and is now one of my favourite 4Ks.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the movie as it takes place in a post-apocalyptic Glasgow (my hometown) despite the fact it was actually filmed in Cape Town, South Africa. I didn’t know that until I watched one of the features on this disc.

The film itself is a cross between Mad Max, Escape from New York and Excalibur as director Neil Marshall said he wanted to make a love letter to the 80’s movies he grew up with. I think if I ever met him, we’d get on just fine as he has similar movie tastes to me.

Rhona Mitra plays our hero Eden who wears an eye patch after losing her eye as a child. This is a nice nod of course to Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) and she’s an awesome character. She and a ragtag group have to go into the quarantined Scotland as rumour has it they have a found a cure to a deadly virus. Things of course do not go as planned and they end up being captured by a large group of survivors who are not infected with the virus and have to fight their way out.

It’s well paced and packed with brutal action and plenty of bloodshed; I still wince at Sean Pertwee’s cruel demise although I do hanker for some BBQ afterwards.

Tyler Bates provides the score which is of course influenced by John Carpenter, and he gives a fascinating interview on the process of creating the sound of the film. Doomsday also uses some amazing songs with the best use of Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood ever used in a movie.

I think Craig Conway steals the show as the crazed villain Sol who is more of a rockstar and I’m still trying to get over him not being Scottish as his accent was spot on. Scottish legend David O’Hara has the best voice in the business and also shines as the self-serving Canaris.

The action all looks practical with nearly constant explosions and shoot-outs with even some fight scenes too. I think people were too hard on the movie as many thought it was just a derivative Mad Max clone, but I think it does enough to stand on its own two feet. I especially like the Medieval aspect which was an interesting touch. I would also have loved to see a sequel to find out what happens next with Eden and Malcolm MacDowell’s character as he doesn’t die at the end of this.

During this period, we also had 28 Days Later and it’s interesting to watch these movies now after COVID so we all have been through a major pandemic. I am a little disappointed that we aren’t all clad in leather and sporting mohicans but it could still happen. 28 Days Later went for a more realistic approach whereas Doomsday goes for all out silliness and I’m here for it. If you grew up watching Mad Max and all these other post-apocalyptic movies from that time period, you’d understand what Marshall was doing here.

This set includes the theatrical cut on 4K and then two Blu-rays featuring the theatrical and unrated cuts of Doomsday as well as many special features.

Special Features:

• 4K Scan from the Original DI Film Negative
• Presented in Dolby Vision
• Audio Commentary with David J. Moore: Author of World Gone Wild: A Survivor’s Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Movies
• Consider This A Warning: Making Doomsday: Interview with Writer and Director Neil Marshall
• The End Is Nigh: Producing Doomsday: Interview with Producer Benedict Carver
• You Are What You Eat: Becoming Sol: Interview with Actor Craig Conway
• Escape From Glasgow: Designing Doomsday: Interview with Production Designer Simon Bowles
• It’s Medieval Out There: Inside The Make-Up Effects: Interview with Special Effects Make-Up Designer Paul Hyett
• Piss & Vinegar: Scoring Doomsday: Interview with Composer Tyler Bates
• Soldier of Misfortune: Becoming Sergeant Norton: Interview with Actor Adrian Lester
• Audio Commentary with Director Neil Marshall and Actors Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Rick Warden, and Les Simpson
• Anatomy of Catastrophe: Civilization on the Brink
• The Visual Effects and Wizardry of Doomsday
• Devices of Death: Guns, Gadgets, and Vehicles of Destruction
• Image Gallery
• Trailer

The picture and sound are mostly faultless; a lot of this movie takes place at night so the darkness needs to look good and it does where we can always see what’s happening. I was especially interested to watch the featurette about escaping Glasgow and that’s when I found it it was Cape Town. During the movie I was like “there’s the City Chambers” and then it actually wasn’t (cries internally). Despite that I love how British this movie is; there are no Americans which is probably why it wasn’t a huge box office hit, but this was always the kind of movie that would become more of a cult favourite like some of John Carpenter’s movies. Our very own david j. moore provides an audio commentary of the film which cool ; I don’t think I could ever do one as I’d just swear most of the way through it.

Overall, whether you like the film Doomsday or not there is no denying that this is physical media at its finest with the movie looking its best on 4K and then we have the unrated cut and hours of special features to keep you entertained too. This is well worth adding to the collection.