Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Sheborg Blu-ray Movie Review

Resistance is low budget.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 7, 2019

Writer/Director Daniel Armstrong's Australian film Sheborg (or Sheborg Massacre) epitomizes today's micro-budget, genre wishlist fulfilling landscape. The film has it all, or perhaps better said it has almost nothing: a nondescript story, cut-rate practical and digital effects, poor pacing, repetitive scenes, crude acting, and so on and so forth. The film can be tedious and tiresome, banking on blood and guts and self-awareness to carry it to success. But even when it's working in its zone, it's difficult to get past the amateurish construction. Many filmmakers have proven that budget doesn't really matter, and that remains true today. Sheborg is rough around the edges, but its budget or lack of polish aren't the real problems: instead it's the relative absence of essentials like characterization and purposeful plotting that hurt the movie. It just can't stand up for a full 80-some minutes without many essential foundational building blocks working for it. Conversely, there's an innate charm at play, a happy-go-lucky, caution-to-the-wind glee with which Armstrong crafts the film, which revels in fan service and bloody chaos. It's certainly a genre lover's picture and not a serious film, so potential audiences will have to weigh the pros and cons of what they expect from a movie to decide if they'll enjoy it or not.

I am She of Borg.

Dylan (Whitney Duff) is a rebel. She and her friend Eddie (Daisy Masterman) are arrested for vandalism, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer. Her father is the mayor, which means she has an easy out from her petty crimes -- or does she? She and her father (Sean McIntyre) don't exactly see eye-to-eye, particularly since her mother died. But her rebellious streak just might come in handy if she ever needs to save the world. Meanwhile, an intergalactic trial and execution goes wrong. The "Sheborg" (Emma-Louise Wilson) makes a daring escape and crash lands on Earth, in Australia to be more precise, near a puppy farm to be exact. As soon as she lands, she coverts various locals into cyborgs who feed on puppies and supply her with the electrical and battery power she needs to function. When Dylan and Eddie, along with a Rock 'N Roller named Rik (Mark Entwistle), visit the puppy farm in hopes of exposing the operation and shutting it down, they find themselves face-to-face with assimilated human beings who are all but resistant to bodily harm and mutilation. Covered in blood and fighting against the odds, Dylan and her growing band of rebels find themselves fighting it out against a growing collective for the fate of humanity.

Sheborg has the feel of a slapdash assembly. The story never finds any depth and it definitely doesn't flow very well. The film comes to be defined more by its ancillary characteristics than its critical core, largely because there's very little core to begin with. Phrases like “chaos ad infinitum,” “chaos provides,” and “crap my life” are refrains heard throughout the movie that seem to define it. There's a repeated, and increasingly tiresome, Face/Off joke. Blood and viscera are commonplace, and viewers can expect to see everything from bulky laser printers to weed whackers used as weapons. It's good -- great, even -- fun in isolation, but the film fails to put together anything meaningful around it. Sheborg generally just transitions from one action scene to the next with little attention paid to flow, rhyme, or reason. There's a loose plot but it gets lost in the maelstrom of iffy acting, poor production values, low-end special effects, and the emphasis on pulpy madness over narrative cohesion. Certainly movies like this don't need Oscar-caliber screenplays, but there's just not enough narrative connective tissue to keep the audience invested once the novelty wears thin and the film increasingly banks on superficialities to maintain audience interest.

But if one can look beyond the faults, genre fans will find an appropriately crazy, oozy-gooey movie with enough comically over-the-top bloodshed, alien carnage, and puppy pulverization to get the juices flowing. As low budget as it may be, Armstrong nails the crude, crass, and crazy tone he's obviously shooting for. While his budget is slim and his script slimmer, he works hard to capitalize on what most audiences are coming for, namely a super-cheap thrill ride that is not afraid to revel in various examples of human, cyborg, and alien blood and guts. Armstrong makes the movie like a kid who managed to swipe some props from the Star Trek warehouse (he even has a character in a funny Spock T-shirt) and filmed what he could, as he could, with whom he could, while in possession of some Borg "technology." Yes, it's a lousy movie from most objective standards, but it's also gleefully absurd and seemingly content with its construction and execution, which has to count for something.

Sheborg Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

That Sheborg's 1080p Blu-ray presentation lacks in several key areas is not a surprise. The film's budget roots and lower grade digital construction almost guarantee a less-than aesthetically pleasing image. Wild Eye's presentation struggles to take command of detail, leaving the various cyborg bits and pieces, natural environments, character faces, and clothes all lacking the precision intimacy that is usually found on superior presentations sourced from higher end productions. Still, core detailing is fine, and the image certainly bears the fruits of the 1080p resolution, allowing for a generally more clear and well defined presentation overall. Colors are likewise less than ideal, appearing decently saturated but not really excelling. Red blood is the standout, which is critical considering just how much of it there is to see, but character hair of various colors, natural greens, and clothes, when not soaked in blood and slime, at least, enjoy a fair level of punch and depth. Black levels are a little raised but skin tones appear fairly accurate. The image suffers from some level of noise and macroblocking in most every shot, unsurprising to see given the production's limitations. The film looks fine for what it is, but potential buyers should not expect something on the same level of a large production from a major studio.

Sheborg Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sheborg features an LPCM uncompressed 2.0 soundtrack. The presentation is fairly paltry, conveying the essentials without much care for detail. Like the video, the relatively subpar presentation traces back to the source, not any real flaws in the sound encoding. The lack of surrounds keep the action from encompassing more of the stage or creating a more dramatic atmosphere. Music, effects, and dialogue all linger around the front-center portion of the stage, the former two failing to stretch all that much to the edges and the latter at least settled where it's supposed to be. Clarity is never a highlight. Most everything comes across in some way imperfect, to some degree of muddy, tinny, and/or scratchy. The track does well enough to create a basic sonic signature but cannot accomplish much more than that.

Sheborg Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sheborg's Blu-ray contains a behind-the-scenes featurette and a music video. No DVD or digital copies are included. The release does not appear to ship with a slipcover.

• Chaos Provides: The Making of Sheborg Massacre (1080p, 18:47): Armstrong and his cast discuss writing the script, influences for the story and characters, character construction, performances, production details, action scene construction, costumes and makeup, budget constraints, and more. This is actually a fairly fun and enlightening glimpse into the world of micro-budget filmmaking and opens up a new appreciation for the film.
• Music Video (1080p, 1:56): Puppy Farm Massacre

Sheborg Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sheborg is very crude, about as rough around the edges as a movie can be. It lacks in all the key areas except for heart, and it's obvious Armstrong pours all of his into the movie. It's not a good movie at all, but if one can look past its critical shortcomings there's a fair bit of fun to be had, though even then the film's tempo is not at all a help. Wild Eye's Blu-ray is fine given the obvious technical limitations inherent to the production. A couple of extras are included. Worth a look for die-hard fans of low-budget schlock.