​SHEBORG (AKA SHEBORG MASSACRE) (2016)- A FILM GUTTER REVIEW

​Dir. Daniel Armstrong, Australia, 90 mins

Australia is not a country we visit often here at Film Gutter, but it's certainly not unheard of. In fact I tend to associate that neck of the woods with dark, wry horror-comedies in the vein of Body Melt or The Loved Ones. Sure, they pack in the gore and the shock, but there's plenty of humour to boot, which can be a welcome relief from some of the more unremittingly bleak content that I engage with on these pages.
 
Funnily enough, Sheborg follows on in much the same vein.

I do a lot of blundering about at random looking for movies to watch – there are plenty I've got on a long list that I want to check out at some point, but now and again a movie just stands out on the power of the title alone. Sheborg sounded like it should be an awful lot of fun, and it lived up to those initial impressions.

The story itself follows rebellious friends Dylan and Eddie, who want nothing more than to fight the system and 'city hall' – although unfortunately Dylan's dad is rather high up in said 'city hall'. However the youngsters' lives are about to take a surprising turn when an alien cyborg crashes to earth just outside a puppy farm (??), and it's not long before this 'Sheborg' sets about a rampage of death, destruction and assimilation. Numerous of the staff at the farm find themselves converted into human-alien-cyborg hybrids, carrying out the evil bidding of the Sheborg as she prepares to bring more of her kind to Earth to take over.

Dylan and Eddie, along with rocker Josh (who's trying to get together with Eddie), decide that they have a duty to rescue the puppies from the puppy farm, but of course don't fully realise what they're getting themselves into, soon enough finding themselves under attack from the minions of the Sheborg. Cue plenty of kick-ass action, surreal moments of humour and general excitement and adventure as the girls look to not only defeat the cyborgs in their own town, but try and save the whole planet in the process.

Sheborg certainly qualifies as a very entertaining piece, and there were a good handful of genuinely laugh out loud moments from the unusual ensemble that makes up the cast. All of the actors and actresses involved seem to be really enjoying themselves and throwing themselves into it, which makes it a lot easier for you to enjoy it as a viewer. It feels like it's fairly low-budget, but it doesn't really show that much in the way that it looks or is shot, cleverly using what it has to best effect. The plot isn't anything spectacular, but presents enough to keep you going and whips along at a good pace as a whole.

My reservation is that I think there's just a bit too much time devoted to action here, and for me those scenes ultimately just become a bit too repetitive and overdone. There's nothing wrong with them per se – they look decent enough, and again are laced with a chuckle or two in the way that our human cast overcomes the alien threat. But I'd have liked to see a bit more character development and more exploitation of some of the comedy chemistry between the cast – it's undoubtedly there from what we do see, and I'd prefer more of that and less of the fighting we encounter.

With all that said, that's not a huge quibble and this one certainly earns high marks for being extremely watchable, for some solid comedy performance and for a generally chaotic, anarchic feel that felt very genuine. If you're into horror-comedies then this one could well be worth checking out – although if you hate the idea of anal probes, this may not be the movie for you...

RATING: 7.5/10. Sheborg doesn't achieve classic status, nor is it really shooting for it in my opinion. But I feel as though it does aim to be a future cult favourite, and it might just go on to achieve that. It's funny, it's energetic, it's well-delivered and has a great style to it. Maybe there's a bit too much action for my personal taste, when there could have been more made of the comedy timing and interplay that we see elsewhere, but that aside there's plenty to like here and a lot of laughs to be had.