Last night I watched yet another of my ex-rental big box movie videos, but although this one was only purchased by me very recently, I well remember it from my video rental days back in the 1980s and 1990s. It is entitled Land of Doom, though I have seen some videos of it for sale that bear the title Raiders of Death instead.
Directed by Peter Maris, and released cinematically by the Matterhorn Group of the Maris Entertainment Corporation in 1986 (but see also later for further details concerning release dates), Land of Doom is based upon a Peter Kotis sci fi novel, with Kotis also writing the screenplay for this movie version. Following the unexpected but very considerable global success of the first two Mad Max movies (released in 1979 and 1981 respectively), the 1980s and 1990s saw a sizeable number of MM-inspired post-apocalyptic biker/survival flicks hit the big screen, of which this is one.
Set in the standard barren desert wasteland of a devastated post-apocalyptic world where only the meanest, toughest, most ruthless human survivors of the nuclear holocaust, plague, pollution, and other social inconveniences can eke out an existence, mostly by raiding what few settlements still exist and killing everyone there that they can find, the appropriately titled Land of Doom is notable within this traditionally macho sci fi subgenre for featuring a feisty female warrior as its lead character (albeit ably supported throughout by a rugged male sidekick).
Said feisty female warrior, armed with a crossbow and dagger, is the surprisingly sweet-named Harmony (played, again somewhat unexpectedly and almost unrecognisably, by none other than Deborah Rennard, who was much more famous onscreen at that time for wearing slinky haute couture outfits while playing the aptly-named Sly – wily personal secretary to Larry Hagman's evil oil baron J.R. Ewing in the American blockbuster TV soap Dallas). Harmony reluctantly rescues a wounded man named Anderson (Garrick Dowhen in his last movie role) after a gang of vicious bikers raid her home village, slaughtering its men and raping or killing its woman, except for Harmony who had remained concealed.
Anderson tells Harmony that he knows of a safe domain, secure from gangs of biker raiders like this one, though he confesses that he's not exactly certain where it is. Nevertheless, this is good enough for Harmony, who hops onto the back of a raider's motorbike behind Anderson after killing said raider when he confronts them shortly after they had left behind Harmony's pillaged village. It turns out that the raider had been sent on their trail by the biker gang's insane leader, Slater (Daniel Radell), who is instantly recognizable by virtue of his artificial arm and steel-clawed hand, his half white/half-black hair, and his Phantom-esque face mask. I'd have added to that list his heavily-studded black leather gear, except that all the other bikers in the gang are wearing much the same – after all, thanks to Mad Max you can't be a post-apocalyptic biker if you're not leathered to within an inch of your generally short-lasting life, now can you?
(Speaking of which, as a biker myself I can only assume that whoever creates these movies has no personal experience of ever riding a motorbike in full leather gear on even a hot British summer's day, let alone in the burning, unrelenting heat of a desert at noon, or they would know that wearing such outfits in such an environment would be totally life-sapping even for just a short time, let alone habitually – then again, who in the cinema world has ever let such trivialities as heath issues supersede image necessities!)
Anyway, back to the story. It turns out that by vigorously defending himself and others against the onslaughts of the biker raiders (whose motorbikes are more like two-wheeled chariots, sporting enormous spike-edged fairings and lateral fins!), Anderson has been for quite a while now a major thorn in the side of Slater – and thence Slater's second-in-command, Purvis (Frank Garret, in his only film role). For Purvis invariably suffers the savage brunt of Slater's ire when he and his biker troops consistently fail to capture Anderson and bring him back to Slater.
Incidentally, although Harmony and Anderson do eventually allow themselves a few laconic one-liners here and there, in terms of general acting Rennard and Dowhen generally seem programmed simply to go through the motions, engaging in one action/battle set piece after another throughout the movie, but revealing little depth or shade to their characters' personalities. By contrast, not only does he expose his mean streak at every available opportunity, Purvis also has a wonderful talent for dry quips, sometimes spoken directly to the camera, which adds some much-needed levity to what can at times be a ponderous "not another fight scene" affair. Overall, Garret is imho by far the best actor in the entire movie, stealing every scene that he is in, which is why I'm puzzled that he apparently never made an impression in the acting world, especially on the big screen (and with only a few TV appearances too). Does anyone know why, I wonder?
After any number of often explosive confrontations with Slater's biker raiders, not to mention a perilously close encounter with a pair of cannibals whose "deer-meat stew" they wisely refrain from consuming, plus a fight with a pitiful zombie-like band of plague-ravaged outcasts, Harmony and Anderson rescue a friendly but garrulous gent named Orland (Akut Duz, aka Aykut Düz) and his pet puppy Guinevere from a pack of rabid feral dogs, which soon turns out to be a very fortuitous good turn.
For when H & A are ambushed shortly afterwards and successfully captured by Slater's mob, bringing them to the clawed one himself who gloats and boasts so maniacally about what he intends to do to each of them that he abruptly develops a lisp for no apparent reason, it is Orland who stages an epic rescue, armed with a flame-thrower that he just so happens to have found in a cave – along with the stand-out characters of this entire movie. Nothing less than a tribe of diminutive hooded entities whose faces are never seen but which in overall outward form resemble a memorable amalgamation of Tolkien's hobbits, the Jawas of Tatooine in the Star Wars film franchise, and Orko from the Masters of the Universe TV cartoon shows, and which speak in a babbling gibberish that, inexplicably, Orland can actually understand!
Once the climactic battle is finally done and dusted, with the bikers decimated, we would be forgiven for assuming that at long last, the arduous trials of H & A are finally over. But just as they begin to ride off into the sunset together, what should appear over the edge of a cliff face but a grasping clawed hand! Whether or not that ominous sight of an apparently still-surviving Slater heralded plans for a second Land of Doom movie, I cannot say, but I can say that no sequel has ever appeared.
So far in this review, I've mentioned all of this movie's main stars – or, to be precise, all but one of them. For its greatest star, effortlessly outshining all others, was its absolutely spectacular scenery. Land of Doom was filmed on location in the breathtakingly beautiful, hauntingly evocative mountain and desert landscape of Capadocia, in Anatolia, Turkey, dotted with crumbling relics and disintegrating remains from real but long bygone civilisations here. It all combines seamlessly to imbue every panoramic shot, every vibrant scene set amidst this surreal, otherworldly vista, with a truly unique atmosphere and aura. Once seen, never forgotten, that's for sure.
Also spectacular in my opinion is the very eyecatching artwork on the front cover of Land of Doom's official UK ex-rental video, as seen in the picture opening the present review. However, when viewing it please do bear in mind the short but significant disclaimer presented in minuscule typeface on the back cover, which reads: "The scenes depicted on this sleeve may be an artist's impression and may not necessarily represent actual scenes from the film". This is particularly relevant, I feel, to the two characters depicted on the front cover. For its red-haired brow-encircled Amazon bears no resemblance whatsoever to blond-haired, diadem-lacking Harmony (but in my opinion she does recall various poster images of the title character from the 1985 movie Red Sonja). Similarly, the semi-masked, steel-clawed male warrior is evidently not Anderson; nor is it entirely Slater either, certainly not facially nor in terms of his unicoloured hair (in contrast, the entirely different front cover artwork of videos bearing the Raiders of Death title do portray an accurate depiction of Slayer). Never mind, it is still very impressive artwork, guaranteed to attract attention from potential video rental customers back in the day, as intended.
I have seen some highly critical reviews of Land of Doom online, comparing it unfavourably with the Mad Max movies, which I feel is somewhat unfair. By definition, derivatives rarely compare well with originals, certainly not directly. Yet as long as a film is entertaining in its own right, then that, surely, is a measure of success, and for me this movie was indeed entertaining in its own right. In fact, my only disappointment was that it did not contain any monsters – no giant mutants created by the nuclear fall-out, for instance – which I feel would have given it much more dramatic diversity. Perhaps its budget simply wasn't big enough to include monsters – shame!
Lastly: as I mentioned earlier, some odd aspects exist in relation to Land of Doom's release date. In all of the authoritative movie databases that I've checked, 1986 is the year given for its cinematic release. Yet the date given on my UK ex-rental VHS video is 1985, and on various American NTSC videos that I've seen it is given as 1984. For obvious reasons, video release dates for a movie are normally the same as or later than that movie's cinematic release date, but as in this instance they are earlier, does this mean that Land of Doom was released onto video before it obtained a cinematic release? If anyone reading this review of mine can offer any suggestions, please feel free to post your comments below – thanks very much!
If you haven't seen Land of Doom but would like to do so, it is currently available to view free of charge in its entirely (with Korean subtitles) on YouTube by clicking here, or click here to view an all-action trailer for it (with Dutch subtitles).
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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