I’m Dreaming of A White Doomsday (2017)- A Post Apocalyptic Christmas Tale- Fitz of Horror Review

Written by Bryan Fitzgerald (Fitz of Horror) May 7, 2018

Synopsis- A mother and her 8 year old son struggle to survive in a bomb shelter after an unnamed apocalypse.

I’m Dreaming of A White Doomsday is director Mike Lombardo’s directorial debut and it is one hell of a first effort. Given the dark and post apocalyptic subject matter the film was actually quite personal for the director.

This film was adapted from director/writer Mike Lombardo’s short story of the same name from the book “A Very StrangeHouse Christmas” (2013). According to Mike, he wrote the story at a time when things in his personal life were dark; notably, his mother was hospitalized for kidney failure, which is why the story’s protagonist is a mother trying to shield someone she cares about from the reality of the situation. Mike also chose Christmas as a backdrop for the story because he wanted to explore the loss of the magic and innocence of childhood.

The film starts innocently enough with a mother, father and their only son decorating their home and the Christmas tree in preparation for Santa’s arrival. After father and son go outside to build a snowman, mom decides to join them but as she walks out the front door she steps into a barren wasteland. We soon see that she was just dreaming of a simpler time but then is faced, as she awakens, with her desolate reality.

The majority of the film takes place in the family’s basement/bunker and has an ominous musical score that adds depth and desperation to the family’s situation. There is a distinct claustrophobic and hopeless feeling the film has because the family is living in squalor with limited food supplies and dirty surroundings.

After the father leaves the security of the bunker to forage for much needed food and supplies and doesn’t return, the mother goes into desperation mode. When she leaves the safety of the bunker we get to see outside and the wreckage and desolation of the world outside. There are some extremely well done practical gore FX and it is somewhat explained what is going on outside the safety of their fortress of solitude, but only vaguely.

When the mother returns to her son the film takes an even more hopeless sense of dread and loneliness. When she finally accepts the fact that her husband isn’t coming home she seems to be losing it a little but still remains strong on the outside for her son. At the beginning of the film a calendar shows that it is the start of December, now it is Christmas Eve and she suggests to her son that they should decorate for Christmas and wait for Santa, but what will Santa bring the last child on earth?

There is a long slow burn build towards something bad and it is palpable. Not once do you feel bored with the film but more anticipating what will happen next. It is a very engrossing and very serious film with some plot points being left to one’s own interpretation but the sense of dread through out and the twisted conclusion make this one that will stick with you after you see it.

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