In the near future, society’s thirst for reality TV has pushed the envelope to the edge, creating a sadistic kind of entertainment... SURVIVAL ISLAND 2020. The concept is simple...Stay Alive!
Ten contestants are divided into five teams on a remote desert island. They must reach the other side of the island in three days, where for the winner, a boat and the $50 million cash prize awaits. While scavenging for food, supplies, and weapons, the players realize that they are not alone on the island. They are being hunted by an army unit of cold-blooded zombies. The demented super soldiers were left behind on the island, when it once housed a military base conducting secret, but failed, human experiments. Each team must find their strengths, gather their wits and try to outsmart the savage death squad that stalks them. If not, they are all DOOMED!
Ever watch THE DATING GAME? I’ve occasionally reflected on the consequences of uniting a couple for some sort of cozy vacation. I mean, supposed they wound-up in a "romantic" backwoods region only to be savaged and eaten by Bigfoot? What, exactly, would be the repercussions for the network? It’s all open to speculation in a medium where Anna Nicole Smith–who could only find her way out of a trailer with a can opener–is venerated weeks after her demise. Smith’s fame is rooted in the league of Jesse Jackson p.r. parasites; exempting tabloid headlines, what did she accomplish? The media mourned the passing of John Kennedy, Jr. who twice flunked a bar exam, founded a failing magazine and wasn’t sufficiently trained to operate a vehicle that was the catalyst for his own death (Barbara Walters eulogized Kennedy with a vignette about keeping his cool in a studio when a camera light malfunctioned. Wow, what a gutsy guy–give that man a posthumous Purple Heart).
DOOMED should have explored the polemics of reality TV: contestants compete for a $50 million prize but have to survive a rustic existence on an island already occupied by flesh-eating zombies. Nice premise for a bit of burlesquing but the film lives down to its title. The intentional humor is squeezed out of a lame in-joke (yowza, the island is identified as Isola de Romero): okay, I wasn’t expecting Paddy Chayefsky but there’s no kvetching about an amoral dilemma (hell, the zombies should have been dethroned network stooges or a mindless public, sick of staring down plasma televisions, who drifted out of the DAWN OF THE DEAD mall). There’s plenty of punching, kicking climbing and running around but there’s nothing more poignant than a geeky hologram that drops platitudes about the players’ options. Forfeiting satire, you’d think the filmmakers would have tailored DOOMED for exploitation addicts; but the movie is bereft of graphic violence and there’s absolutely zip T&A (I would have bet the farm that pretty Sarah Diaz loses her shirt; instead, she’s literally carried away by zombies in a scene that looks like an outtake from HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL).
The filmmakers, one assumes, opted for an all-action venue but it’s pretty anemic; everything appears to be improvised. Cribbing THE RUNNING MAN, the rivals are all convicted felons whose survival insures their freedom. But there’s not much point to this subplot; they’re no more choleric than a Tupperware fraternity conspiring to walk out of a David Lynch movie. A political subtext may not be necessary (the lack of subtlety turned LAND OF THE DEAD into a pretentious diatribe) but even a "zombie" film needs a compass.
On the bright side, DOOMED isn’t as bad as HOUSE OF THE DEAD. And there’s a "twist" ending, already telegraphed by the shameless finale of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING, that serves-up some homage to Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBIE (debate among yourselves whether or not it was intentional).
By Alexxus Young
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2007
DIRECTOR: Michael Su
WRITING CREDITS: Michael Su
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Mary Christina Brown, Steve Cryen, Sarah Diaz
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 76 min
RATING: 3/10
Doomed Website/IMDB Click here
Doomed Trailer Click here
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