Doors (2021)
(On Cable TV, March 2022) Ugh, what a disappointment. As a documented Science Fiction fan, I’m more than willing to give a chance to any new SF movie… at the cost of being far harsher on failures than someone who doesn’t care as much. The premise of Doors seems hard to mess up: what if we had an anthology film exploring the ramifications of a worldwide event—the appearance of alien “doors” throughout the world, affecting humans in various ways. You can see the possibility here for multiple angles on the same core material, for tonal shifts, and for developing an idea in audacious ways. But the result falls far short of expectations. For one thing, the framing device is lazily developed through annoying narration. Worse is the lack of coordination of the segments, each apparently going their own way in terms of visuals, door powers and thematic consistency. A low-budget execution doesn’t do Doors any favours, nor does a truly baffling visual design with hard-to-read subtitles standing in for alien communications. Perhaps worst of all is a growing sense of dissatisfaction with how writers-directors Jeff Desom, Saman Kesh and Dugan O’Neal seem to do one random thing after another, not leading to anything, not creating any kind of credible atmosphere. The ”scientists” of the film are terrible at their jobs, the high schoolers are unlikable, the podcaster is presented as an untrustworthy source of information (rather vexing considering his role in explaining the context) and nothing adds up. There’s a clear lack of conclusion to all four of the anthology segments, as they invariably end just when things turn interesting. There’s not thematic unity, no narrative drive, no sense of viewing pleasure—Doors quickly becomes an ordeal, clearly put together with people without any understanding or appreciation of the ways Science Fiction can be used for impact or thematic development. What a waste of time and effort.