LAND OF DOOM (1985)
Label: Scorpion Releasing
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 87 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual Mono with Optional
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Peter Maris
Cast: Deborah Rennard, Garrick Dowhen, Daniel Radell, Frank Garret, Richard Allen, Aykut Düz
In this post-nuke Road Warrior knock-off Land of Doom (1985), directed by Peter Maris (Delirium), mankind has resorted to leather studded barbarism following the prerequisite nuclear holocaust. At the top of the film a village is being raided by a marauding biker gang known as the Raiders, they tear into town in ridiculous-looking armored motorbikes raping, pillaging and laying waste everything in sight. A survivor from the attack Harmony (Deborah Rennard, Lionhart) flees the massacre and hides in a nearby cave where she meets the generic-brand Bruce Campbell looking Anderson (Gerry Dowhen, Appointment with Fear), and they reluctantly team-up to take on the Raiders and their leader, the metal armed and leather masked Slater (Daniel Radell, Ministry of Vengeance) and his vicious sidekick arm-bow armed Purvis (Frank Garret, TV's Remington Steele). While they travel the desert they encounter cannibals, Tusken Raiders knock-offs, plague-riddled wanders, and a guy named Oralnd (Aykut Düz) who rides around the wastelands on his bicycle with his puppy, and who is pretty handy with a flamethrower. The frenzied finale stuffed to the gills with low-speed armored motorbike stunts, a vulgar amount of studded leather fashions, Road Warrior-esque finger dismemberment, and plenty of explosions and gunfire.
It's not the most ingenious or clever of post-nuke films but it's certainly entertaining in it's threadbare way, though sadly bereft of splattery gore and nudity, both of which might not have made it a better film, but y'know, it couldn't have hurt either. There's no real character development and the only real story arc seems to be Harmony going from someone who aggressively doesn't want to be touched by anyone to giving someone a big hug at the end. Oddly, there are also no big-bads vanquished, both Slater and Purvis both live, it's all left sort of open-ended, but I think there's enough inept action, wooden machismo and female bad-assery to make this worth a watch. The best stuff here is post-apocalyptic eyecandy by way of ludicrous looking armored bike and vihicless, which this is lousy with, and plenty of post-nuke bondage gear, and the Turkish locations add a unique flavor to it, but the story and action elements are rote. It's not on par with The Road Warrior but it's at least superior when compared to Exterminators of the Year 3000 and falls more along the lines of something like Steel Dawn.
Audio/Video: Land of Doom (1985) arrives on Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1) looking solid but not perfect. The image looks organic with grain intact but it does have it's share of scratches, vertical lines and white speckling to contend with it. The image has some nice fine detail and color saturation throughout that is sure to please and black levels are decent. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HA MA 2.0 dual mono with optional English subtitles. There's a bit of background hiss in spots but it's always intelligible and the barrage of gunfire, explosions and cranage sounds just fine, as does the synth score from Mark Governor (Mindwarp), though I think some of the music cues during the action scenes are on the corny side.
Extras are slim, we get a handful of trailers and the 12-min On-Camera interview with actress Deborah Rennard features the Dallas prime-time soap star discussing shooting the film in Turkey, the unique landscape, shooting in cave full of bats and bat guano, going to a bizarre in the village they were staying in, and being recognized by the locals from her stint on Dallas. She also talks briefly about liking the strong female lead - jokingly noting that the film pre-dates Charlize Theron (Monster) similar role in Mad Mad: Fury Road, taking archery lessons on-set, and how she liked director Peter Maris. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the awesome illustrated poster which makes no bones about this being a Road Warrior knock-off, the same artwork is featured on the Blu-ray disc.
Special Features:
- On-Camera interview with actress Deborah Rennard (12 min)
- Original Trailer (1 min)
Trailers: POW The Escape (1 min), Iron Warrior (2 min), From Deep Space (2 min), Bucktown (2 min), Opposing Force (2 min)
Land of Doom (1985) might be derivative and threadbare but it's well-paced and the action is plenty entertaining. It wouldn't make a top ten list of my favorite post-nuke Mad Mad knock-offs but it would probably make the honorable mentions, and as such is well-worth seeking out if you're a nut for these sort of post-nuke barbarism flicks.
Screenshots from the Scorpion releasing Blu-ray:
