Review: Doomsday Stories

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Doomsday Stories
Directed by Derek Braasch, Marcelo Fabani, Phil Herman,
James Panetta, Joel D. Wynkoop
Cheevies Film Productions; Herman Productions;
IkuZo! Studios; Lonewolf Studios Uruguay; Wynkoop Productions
120 minutes; 2023
www.facebook.com/search/top?q=doomsday%20stories

It has been a while since I reviewed an anthology film. Personally, I like them as a concept, generally. It is like reading short stories instead of a novel. And as I have posited before, anthologies tend to fall into three different categories: the first is a series of short films cobbled together, such as The ABCs of Death (2012); the second is a few stories strung together to tell a larger story like Bad Candy (2021); and the third is the one where the stories are all mixed up together, going back and forth with either overlapping characters, or jump around. What tends to be the most common aspect that is usually present is the wraparound story, which introduces either the premise at beginning and end, or each “chapter.”

The second point I have also noted before, is that COVID was both a curse and a blessing, in a way. The former is obvious, but the latter has to do mainly with the arts: people stuck at home have written or created fine art more, and filmmakers either were forced to make limited, smaller films with few cast and crew, such as Prince of the Crimson Void (2022), or as a subject matter, for it creating the apocalypse, e.g., Ravage Nation (2022). 

For this film, the stories are 30 years after the apocalypse. As the intro voice-over states, the end starts with COVID in 2019, which developed into the “Meanies” virus in 2025, which wipes out all but 8,000 people. Our tales begin in 2055. So, what we are looking at, is the second form of anthology listed above. The narration is handled by Michael Moutsatsos, who directed Ravage Nation mentioned above.

Phil Herman

For the wraparound, a lone man, Zorack (Phil Herman, curator of these tales and director of the wraparounds) comes across a notebook with some stories in it. He roams the countryside (which looks like it could be either the Jersey Shore or the Pine Barrens) and narrates out loud to himself (hell, I do that too). When his memories – which we see in stark and vague backsplashes – get too much for the lonely guy, he reads the stories in the marble-themed scratcher. What we get to see is the realization of those tales. Whether these stories are supposed to be the writer’s fiction or memories is unclear, and unimportant, but worth noting.

The first of these, “A Broken Promise” (directed by Derek Braasch) is a about a man and his dog (no, not Don Johnson). Rick (Justin Bower) wanders around a lot for food and water, showing kindness to some and killing others by defending himself, while mooning for his late wife, Emma (Lillian Lamour) and infant daughter, seen in flashbacks. Most of the story is of him roaming through some rusty truck graveyards (coolest thing about this one). The story is way longer than it needs be, but it does tug the emotional heartstrings as well as having some nice practical SFX.

Justin Bower, Lucy

In “Bomb Threats” (directed by James Panetta), annoying phone-addicted Katrina (Debbie D, aka Debbie Dee, who also wrote this section, and had appeared in a few Bill Zebub films) is getting ready for a nice vacation the next day, when the titular bombs start a-flyin’ and she’s rightfully a-scared. The Meanie virus is just starting to take hold, so she coerces a business associate, Alvin (Jim Ewald), to let her stay overnight in his bomb shelter (that looks like a garage). I will not say how, but things do not quite work out as planned. I will note that one of the scenes reminds me of a classic image from a particular Hershell Gordon Lewis film in the early 1960s.

Filling in for the Zorack stories are some of his own, that show up occasionally with Herman in a bad blond wig and baseball cap whiningly phoning various people he knows who are in the “turning point” of the Meanie virus, such as much tattooed Kate (Constance Payne), cute Kelly (Alba O’Neill), and his pal, Frank (Carl J. Grasso) who has a thick Long Island accent. I am guessing these segments were filmed during the actual COVID pandemic, because each person’s story is shot individually.

Alba O'Neill

“Forever Man” (directed by Marcelo Fabani) uses some decent animation and SFX (along with some cheesy ones). The main character who does not speak is Frank 21 (Chandra Mouli Nandy), though we hear his inner narration. The area he lives in, post-Meanies, where in this case turns people into zombies rather than maniacs, demands its denizens to sell their organs. In doing this, Frank 21 becomes a cyborg killing machine. I think. To be honest, this segment tried too hard to be artsy in both visuals and dialogue, and it becomes befuddling.

With an interesting concept, “Joel D. Wynkoop’s 187 Times” (directed by Joel D. Wynkoop), James Kirk (Wynkoop) had a wife, Diana (M. Catherine Wynkoop), that was killed, and he spends the titular number of times going back in time from the year 2050 to try and save her. But, of course, he keeps screwing up the timeline. He is aided by an Alexa kind of electronic voice called Aistda (the voice of M. Catherine). In this tale, it also explains how the whole Meanies virus got started. There appears to be snippets from other films, probably made by Wynkoop over the years, which is a nice choice. In one sequence, he goes back to 1977, and I was thinking, dude, while you have the chance, go see the Ramones! But I guess his priorities are different than mine…

A question I have is as follows: It has been a while since the apocalypse, so water and food is understandably scarce. So why are so many still overweight, and especially, why are they clean in both body (including hair) and clothes? You would think washing…anything would be an issue. For example, someone has a non-stained KISS shirt that looks right off the rack, though the Motörhead one appears lived in a bit. While I am at it, why are people scrounging for canned good?. Does no one grow anything? I have a garden and that does pretty well for us most of the year. There is also no leaves or weeds on what looks like freshly mowed lawns, and parked cars are shiny and clean. And there is still electricity and television? Just sayin’, not complaining. These tend to be true across many post-apoc films. There is a lot of inconsistencies through the stories, but then again, if I read this right, they are just stories written in a notebook, so that would explain the differences from tale to tale.

Put together by the same people who did the Horrortales.666 anthology franchise, this goes on longer than it needs be (especially “Broken Promise”), but this is true indie filmmaking with a budget of miniscule proportion. They work both as individual tales and as a collective, which is nice. If you get a kick out of the duct tape level of cinema, as I do, you might find this interesting. Not for anyone who likes cohesive storylines or an artistic flair, but this is solid meat and taters.

This movie is available for $20, which includes postage. It can be acquired through contacting Phil Herman or Joel D Wynkoop on Facebook Messenger. Add it to your post-apoc pile.

IMDB listing HERE