Shinobi recently finished his Doom proposals. Allow me to introduce mine to you; the Demon Overlord.
The Work[]
Doom: Annihilation is a mediocre 2019 sci-fi horror film released direct-to-DVD. Other than the title, the theme of demon zombies, and a character named after a villain, it barely resembles the story of Doom, such as the complete lack of Doomguy. But hey, it follows the games closer than that 2005 Doom film with The Rock.
The Candidate[]
At some point in the future where people can freely travel to Mars, two ancient teleporters are discovered; one on Earth and another on the Martian moon Phobos, which are called "Gates" by the United Aerospace Corporation. In a test, a scientific facility is built over the Gate on Phobos to test if a testing subject enters the Gate on Phobos, he'll appear at the Gate on Earth. Instead, after the subject is sent in, he comes back extremely mutilated and deformed, having lost all sense of his humanity. Dr. Malcolm Betruger decides to send himself through the Gate next despite his worrying associates and discovers the truth.
The Gates are not regular teleporters. Instead, they are gateways to Hell, but not the Hell you're thinking of. Millions of years ago, alien demons invaded the Earth to prey upon humanity. Lead by an unnamed overlord, the demons ruled over the Earth for thousands of years until an unknown and unexplained phenomenon banished them away into Hell. Before his banishment, the overlord built the Gates. Once the humans grew advanced enough to activate them, he and his demonkind could reclaim what was "theirs". When Dr. Betruger entered the Gate and found himself in Hell, the overlord either brainwash or manipulates him that the demons seek to enlighten and evolve humanity once the Gate on Earth opens before sending him back. Just then, the power on the base goes out except for the Gate, which spews out hostile demons.
Unable to contact the scientists on Phobos, the people on Earth send Marines to the base for investigation. Upon arriving, not only are the demons running wild, but the scientists have been turned into zombies with only Betruger and two others still alive, who tells the Marines to restart the base's power so he could turn off the Gate. One by one, the scientists and Marines become chow to the demons and zombies until Lt. Joan Dark and Dr. Betruger are the only ones left. After power is brought back, Dr. Betruger reveals he was hiding his demonic form under his human skin. Joan shoots him, but he quickly regenerates and pushes Joan through the Gate.
Finding herself in Hell, Joan is surrounded by more demons. There, the overlord finally reveals himself, going on a quite cliched villain monologue where he explains how pathetic he finds humans and reveals his plan to escape from Hell through the Gate on Earth and destroy humanity. He then orders his troops to kill Joan and enter the Gate. But having acquired a BFG (also a staple of the Doom series), Joan blows up the demons and seemingly kills the overlord, before leaping through the Gate when it activates again. Instead of arriving on Phobos, Joan finds herself on Earth, with the Gate almost in working order. The scientists ignore Joan's demands to shut off the Gate and have security subdue her. Before losing consciousness, a demonic growl is heard which is where the film ends.
The demons have succeeded in arriving at Earth, prompting bait for a sequel that will likely not happen considering how bad this film was received both critically and financially.
The Factors[]
Although the demons are said to be sentient, they mainly act as regular feral beasts; it's only their overlord who can speak and show true awareness of his crimes. He's the one with power over the other demons, commanding them to do his bidding and has the most impact on the plot, given how he manipulated Dr. Betruger to open the Gate on Earth so humanity would obtain his enlightenment (in the form of omnicide). He calls the other demons his "children", but there's nothing indicating him seeing them as anything other than his soldiers who he forces through the Gate.
The Standards[]
Since the movie isn't completely connected to the game series, there's no fear of rivaling say Olivia Pierce or the Khan Maykr. Dr. Betruger, who is PE in the games, does very little in this film. Plus, he was corrupted by the overlord into opening the Gate leading to Earth so the overlord can annihilate the human race and reclaim the Earth as he did millennia ago.
The Verdict[]
A little basic for the "demons take over the world" concept, but he's heinous enough to qualify.
Yes: 4
No: 0
Undecided: 0
Final Score: +4
Consensus: Pure Evil