Talks filmmaking, test audiences and “critics”
Neil Marshall – director of the supreme spine-tingler The Descent – kicked off 2008 with a blog on his Myspace page. It’s a hearty read that looks back on his year making Universal’s upcoming release Doomsday.
A potent brew of “Mad Max,” Escape from New York and more, the film – starring Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell – has been getting mucho press from the horror new outlets (including us). Marshall stresses, via his journal entry, “Doomsday is NOT a horror film. Yes, it’s dark. Yes, it’s brutal and violent. (Hey, it’s me !) And yes, it ‘s even a little scary at times. But a horror film it is not. The mistake, and this seems to be based on contemporary cinema lore, which states that virus = zombies. With the likes of everything from 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil, and most recently in I Am Legend, it seems that any film dealing with a virus automatically has to have some variation of the living dead running around devouring people. Well, our virus is back to basics. The real deal. It kills people. Pure and simple. As lethal and effective as a virus really is. Okay, so it rots you from the outside in, covering the victim with weeping soars and dripping pustules and liquefies the internal organs, but the end result is…you die. And you don’t come back. That said, Doomsday is not primarily a virus movie either. The ‘Reaper’ virus acts as a catalyst for the action, it’s responsible for creating the world of the story, but doesn’t drive the narrative.”
So, there you have it. Nevertheless, we’re gonna stay on top of the film. (Sorry, Neil, but we love ya.) Click on the link above for Marshall’s 2007 wrap-up.
Source: Neil Marshall
