Like Rambo, this one comes off as an actual exploitation film rather than a “clever homage” to exploitation films. So roll 28 Days Later, Road Warrior, Escape from New York, and…ummm…maybe Knightriders…all into one movie, and there you go. Rhona Mitra has go into infected and permanently quarantined Scotland to find a doctor who might have a cure for the disease that wiped the Scots out — and has now resurfaced in London. Those who remain alive in Scotland have become either Road Warrior style post-apocalypse leather punks who waggle their tongues and drive crazy vehicles, or they have reverted to a medieval existence, inhabiting Scotland’s many castles. Many exploding heads and much splattering blood ensues.

As with most of his films, what really makes Marshall’s Doomsday for me are the little things — like the medieval guy giving his “welcome to your deaths” style speech while there is a sign behind him that says “Gift Shop.” Plenty of people ripped off The Road Warrior, but this is one of the few that got it right AND did something different with the formula.

Not that the movie is a polished work of art. There are huge gaps in the basic logic of the film. How did Sol even become leader of a punk army? Was he walking around his dad’s castle, all dressed in his punk gear, chafing that the old man wanted him to wear jerkins and a Henry VIII robe instead? And why would people decide not just to live in the awesome castles (an obvious choice), but that also they should recreate every aspect of the Middle Ages, including the clothes and weapons? And how many times does Rhona Mitra have to wreck that car before it begins to show any damage at all? But really, those sorts of failings are what make the movie feel like a genuine exploitation film instead of a self-satisfied “homage.”

And Marshall’s choice in bad-ass women: first Natalie Mendoza, now Rhona Mitra. This man speaks my language.