The year is 2008, and a pandemic threatens to wipe out the whole of the human race. For many in the United Kingdom--the epicenter of the outbreak--the end is nigh, so why bother to keep count? Within days of detection of the Reaper virus millions are infected in Scotland, the killer disease’s home turf. Government has no choice but to declare the country a “hot zone” and quarantine the populace in hopes of containing the Reaper’s spread. What was once Scotland is now a forgotten No Man’s Land, with the Reaper given free reign to annihilate the population sealed inside. A quarter of a century later, with a new outbreak of the Reaper resurfacing in London, it becomes apparent that the government’s best laid plans have gone completely, bloody awry. Department of Domestic Security (DDS) Chief Bill Nelson is summoned to meet with the prime minister and the true power behind his office, Michael Canaris, who reveal satellite photos of Reaper survivors in the hot zone. And survivors must mean there’s a cure. Nelson quickly assembles a crack team of specialists to venture into the forsaken land and retrieve the counteragent to the virus. For the tough and efficient commanding officer, Major Eden Sinclair, the assignment represents a disquieting homecoming. Twenty-five years earlier, she had been shoved into one of the last evacuating military choppers and flown to safety--forced to leave her mother behind. Once on the other side of the immediately re-secured border, the squadron is on its own, venturing into a ghoulish terrain of corpse-strewn, forlorn cities. All too soon, however, the crew meets up with a pack of feral survivors, and finds itself unwittingly standing in for the callous government that turned its back years before. - skip ad - Genres: Action/Adventure, Thriller and Politics/Religion Running Time: 1 hr. 45 min. Release Date: March 14th, 2008 (wide) MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexual content/nudity. Distributor: Universal Pictures Distribution Cast And Credits Starring: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Alexander Siddig, Adrian Lester, Sean Pertwee Directed by: Neil Marshall Produced by: Trevor Macy (II), Marc Evans (IV), Peter McAleese

“If you’re hungry, here’s a piece of your friend,” snarls a jailer in the post-apocalyptic action picture “Doomsday,” sliding a plateful of charbroiled man-flesh to a captive.

If that line fails to make the film’s midnight-movie ambitions clear, the British writer and director Neil Marshall offers many other clues: hands, legs and heads lopped off in bloody close-ups; a nonstop soundtrack of adrenaline-stoking rock ’n’ roll; a shot of a cute little bunny blasted into rabbit stew by a remote-controlled sentry cannon.

“Doomsday” is set in the near future, years after the British government quarantined a plague-ravaged Scotland and let its inhabitants die out. The decision is believed to have killed the disease along with the Scottish population, but when it surfaces in London, officials reveal that a hardy band of Glasgow inhabitants survived the epidemic and might hold clues to a cure.

Enter the stoic, one-eyed mercenary Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra, of the television show “Nip/Tuck”), who is ostensibly entrusted with leading a team of soldiers into Glasgow on a mission to find a doctor-turned-political leader named Kane (Malcolm McDowell) and learn how the Glasgow contingent survived.

Really, though, Eden is mainly on hand to impersonate another sci-fi hero, Snake Plissken from John Carpenter’s “Escape From New York,” and to punch, kick, run and shoot her way through situations shamelessly cribbed from Mr. Carpenter’s film, George Miller’s “Mad Max” trilogy, “Aliens” and other dystopian touchstones.

“Doomsday” has an appealing punk-rock sneer, but aside from a few clever music cues — including a Fine Young Cannibals song that accompanies a deranged bacchanal given by fine young cannibals — swagger is, unfortunately, its only notable quality.

The film’s bellowing, Mohawk-topped villain, Sol (Craig Conway), is a personality-free retread of Vernon Wells’s memorable Wez from “The Road Warrior.” Major supporting characters — including a squad leader, played by Adrian Lester, and a gruff yet caring boss, portrayed by Bob Hoskins — are so lifeless they could have been cast with inflatable dolls. The final chase, modeled on an epic set-piece from Mr. Miller’s second “Mad Max” movie, is likewise a bust, substituting gore, shaky camerawork and chop-chop editing for Mr. Miller’s symphonic build-up and release.

Mr. Marshall gained a cult following with his 2002 debut feature, “Dog Soldiers,” about British troops menaced by werewolves in the Scottish highlands, and acquired serious (and well-deserved) critical respect for his 2005 film, “The Descent,” about a group of female spelunkers who encounter terrifying creatures while exploring a network of caves.

In terms of story, “The Descent” and “Doomsday” are as different as two genre films can be, but the falloff in artistic quality is still quantifiable. Where “The Descent” was a slow, quiet, exquisitely modulated, startlingly original film, “Doomsday” is frenetic, loud, wildly imprecise and so derivative that it doesn’t so much seem to reference its antecedents as try on their famous images like a child playing dress-up. Homage without innovation isn’t homage, it’s karaoke.

“Doomsday” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes nudity, bad language and extreme violence.