Film

Doom

Name: Doom
Genre: Action, Horror, Science Fiction
Released: 2005
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Deobia Oparei, Razaaq Adoti

A straightforward action-horror about space marines on Mars fighting mutated humans in a research facility. It's *Aliens* meets *The Thing*, grounded in gunfire and creature mayhem rather than psychological dread. Mostly fun, occasionally gory, uninterested in subtlety. For people who like their sci-fi practical and their action loud.

TMDb rating

2.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want your sci-fi horror loud, lean and gleefully physical, and you don't mind a mid-2000s video-game adaptation trading subtlety for swagger.

Skip it if you need characters with depth, since the cast is largely sketched in broad strokes and the dialogue leans on tough-guy clichés.

What it asks of you: At 105 minutes it moves briskly through dim corridors and firefights, dark and loud from the start, so it wants your attention on action more than backstory.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Aliens1986

The template Doom works from: a team of marines in tactical gear, a hive of monsters, one competent woman holding them together, and setpiece after setpiece of escalating firepower and survival. Smarter and tighter.

But Forty years old and occasionally slow in the buildup. The special effects are mostly practical, which means they sometimes look it.

The Thing1982

Paranoia, isolation, and shape-shifting aliens in a confined space. Like Doom, it's about creatures that used to be human. Carpenter's version is leaner and far more psychologically brutal than the premise might suggest.

But Bleak and nihilistic in ways that some find punishing. Not an action movie, despite the violence.

Starship Troopers1997

Militaristic sci-fi action with giant bugs, chainsaws, and weapons that actually feel destructive. It commits to the absurdity of its premise in ways that let the fun breathe. Verhoeven's satirical eye keeps it from feeling as one-note as Doom.

But Deliberately over-the-top and occasionally campy. If you want grit without irony, this will feel silly.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Doom

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Descent2005

Both are ensemble creature-horror built on team fragmentation and the corruption of the human form. Doom is the action movie; Descent is the nightmare.

Released the same year as Doom and operating from the same blueprint—trapped soldiers (here, cavers) discovering something human-shaped and wrong in darkness. Where Doom goes loud and visceral, The Descent goes claustrophobic and nasty. Same energy, opposite direction.

But Aggressively bleak. The creatures and the action are secondary to suffocation and circumstance. If you want heroism, you won't find it.

Event Horizon1997

Paul W.S. Anderson (who directed Doom) made his reputation here—a haunted-house film set on a derelict spaceship. Visual flair, practical creature design, and moments of genuine dread in corridors and confined spaces. Gore with craft.

But The plot collapses in the third act. Some imagery is effective on first viewing but doesn't reward repeated watching.

Resident Evil2002

Also Paul W.S. Anderson. Zombies in an underground facility, a laser hallway, commando action, and a lead who actually feels competent. It knows exactly what it is and commits fully. Pulpy and kinetic.

But The dialogue is functional at best. It's essentially a video-game level design pretending to be a film.

Predator1987

A hunting film disguised as a Vietnam parable. Schwarzenegger, guerrilla tactics, an alien that feels genuinely otherworldly. The body horror is understated by modern standards but all the more effective for it.

But The first two acts are heavy on talk and military posturing. Younger viewers may find the pacing glacial.

Deep Blue Sea1999

An undersea lab, genetically modified creatures, and a cast that gets systematically thinned by something smarter than they are. Efficient action-horror that understands momentum and doesn't linger on nonsense.

But The sharks don't hold up visually. Some kills feel rote, and the logic occasionally surrenders to convenience.

The Expanse2015

Military-grade sci-fi with practical ships, competent teams solving problems under pressure, and a sense of scale that makes space feel hostile. Each season builds; the third particularly echoes Doom's creature-horror elements.

But Slow-burning and dialogue-heavy. If you want spectacle without setup, you'll feel the bureaucracy and politics grinding beneath it.

Lockout2012

A rescue mission into a prison satellite. Fast, unpretentious, and self-aware about its own pulpiness. Guy Pearce versus impossibility, with wisecracks and practical stunts. Knows its place and is comfortable there.

But Genuinely cheap-looking in places. The script is thin, and the plot works because nothing slows it down.

A Matter of Life and Death1946

Both examine the boundary between human and inhuman through bodies under threat. Doom asks what happens when humans become monsters; this asks what happens when the soul is negotiable.

Powell and Pressburger's Technicolor afterlife drama. A RAF pilot crashes, bargains with death, and argues for his right to live. Visually stunning, morally serious, and built on the same foundation as Doom—the fear that the human body and mind can be compromised by forces outside ourselves.

But A post-war film in every sense: slow, philosophical, more interested in conversation than resolution. Doom's inverse in pacing and register.

Annihilation2018

Both hinge on rapid, contagious genetic corruption that unmakes human identity. Where Doom is visceral and action-driven, Annihilation is meditative and transformative—the same idea asking different questions.

A science team entering a shimmer—a zone where DNA mutates without logic or mercy. Mutation, military discipline, female authority, and the horror of transformation that isn't quite death or survival. Visually strange, unsettling, and intellectually robust in ways Doom never claims to be.

But Slow and opaque about its own logic. The ending is abstract and unsatisfying if you want clear answers. Audiences found it frustrating.