"The Doom Busters" (2025) [Pigeon Shrine FrightFest Glasgow]

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s writer/director Jack McHenry’s U.K. science fiction/horror comedy The Doom Busters!

Synopsis

During the second world war, a band of misfits must come together to save the Galaxy.

The Good

Joseph: Director Jack McHenry has a way with period piece horror comedies. His sophomore feature after his splatterific debut Here Comes Hell (2019; reviewed here for Gruesome Magazine) — a fun The Cat and the Canary riff — is the WWII-set The Doom Busters. A group of British Home Guard members — Arthur (Tom Bailey), Harold (Oscar Meyrick), William (Timothy Renouf) — and Women’s Land Army member Edith (Jessica Webber) explore the local forested area in search of a downed German plane. This being a science fiction chiller and chuckler, the craft came much, much further away than Germany, and without going too deeply into spoiler territory, a nurse with a secret (Margaret Clunie) is also roaming the woods in search of the craft’s deadly occupant. The premise is a blast, and thanks to McHenry’s writing and helming, the main characters are a lovable lot, brought to cinematic life by an ensemble cast that puts their all into their roles.

Mike: Right out of the chute a mention must be made about the low budget of the proceedings, and they are low. However, with a strong DIY mindset, a “let’s put on a helluva show!” attitude from the actors, and clever camera work that goes a long way towards masking the budget, what we’ve got here is a rollicking good time.

McHenry wears his influences on his sleeve here, with plenty of subtle - and not so subtle - references to Alien, Predator, and Terminator franchises (to name the big ones), along with a terrific old-school synthy soundtrack that evokes memories of the said classic films.

There’s plenty of humor of different types to appeal to most anyone, from subtle, to dry British humor, to slapstick gross-out and bloody laughs. To be honest, The Doom Busters contains a little bit of everything including a morale-boosting speech that

includes a shocking reveal and exposition dump that puts everything into perspective that may have been noodling around in your noggin.

The Bad

Joseph: The lower budget shows its seams at times, especially with some special effects, but The Doom Busters is exactly the type of film for which I am willing to overlook that matter because the cleverness on display is so imaginative, and those effects can add to the charm.

Mike: If you can make it past the budget-constrained and nigh-comical effects, you’ll be fine. If watching a shoe-stringed budget film isn’t your cuppa, maybe you need to look elsewhere. Sadly, you’d be missing a film that doesn’t need to rely on effects, but hey, your loss. I’m pretty sure The Doom Busters wouldn’t want that can’t do attitude anyway.

The Verdict

Joseph: Fans of horror comedies and British humor should find The Doom Busters to be a rollicking treat, rich in verve and chutzpah. You’ll get an added kick out of recognizing its cinematic references.

Mike: The Doom Busters is a plucky little low budget affair that reveals in its ability to pluck nostalgia of time-honored action franchises from the 1980s and slap them into a World War II setting that in turn contains plenty of humor and a simple - yet elegant (elegantly simple?) - storyline.