Review: Near Extinction: Shangri-La

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films

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Near Extinction: Shangri-La (aka Shangri-La: Near Extinction)

Directed by Nick Wauters

Incompass Media / Man on the Moon Productions /
Pizza Box Entertainment / MVD Entertainment

95 minutes, 2018

www.wildeyereleasing.com

www.MVDEntertainment.com

Sometimes you just want a film with lots of cheese, and arguably the best genre for that is sci-fi. I mean, look at the original “Battlestar Gallactica” (both 1978 film and series), “Space 1999” or even the original “Star Trek” for that matter (those sets, Oy!). If that’s what you’re in the mood for, well, there is this release.

This plays out almost like a television show (from the creator of the NBC sci-fi series “The Event”) in that it obviously wants to be a franchise in that it has a similar feel to recent films like The Maze Runner saga.

Eric Szmanda

The way this film does that is by packing as many storylines as they can that overlap, to hopefully keep the interest and make it more complex, i.e. suitable for additial viewing, especially when one needs to catch up with the next episode… I mean release. The original Star Wars trilogy was great at doing that.

Speaking of plots, the first of the three storylines here is introduced with title cards to give us some idea of what is going on, without giving too much detail, but heck, we know we’ll figure it out by the end; it’s not James Joyce, after all. Apparently, some multi-national scientists had created a sentient creature called Konglings that soon mass produced (“Nature will find a way,” you can almost hear Jeff Goldblum say). To kill them off, the global governments created a world-wide Ice Age to kill them off, also knocking off most of the denizens of everywhere. In other words, the cure was as bad (worse?) than the disease.

Patrick Batiste

Much like in Creepozoids (1987), among others, a small group makes its way through a mostly-dead post-apocalyptic world – in this case of snow – as they are hunted down by something called “the green eyes” (yes, you will know by the end of the film). There are two leaders of the group, and you can tell because you hear their internal monologs (sounding like Kirk doing the log). The first, and star of the film, is Vargas (Eric Szmanda, most commonly known for his role as investigator Greg on the original “CSI”). The group of five or six travel the globe in search of a safe haven called, yep, Shangri-La, while going to lab facilities that may bring to mind the Umbrella Corporation (with some puppet-like creatures here and there as well). This is the main storyline.

Another is the origin story of the Konglings, which is interwoven, as the scientists create said creature a la films like the superior Species (1995; which has its own “CSI” connection) and the inferior Splice (2009). Unlike those two films which rely on the start-up, here it is secondary to what is happening in the segment above.

The third – and more ridiculous of the three – is the bizarre-Jedi militant cult of which one of our crew, Kalo (Patrick Batiste) is an ex-member. They have a weird, thick strand of hair glued to their foreheads, wear red robes and hoods that are straight out of any Satanic film, and of course make human sacrifices. One more enemy for our crew to fight against.

Sara Malakul Lane

Considering how much of this is played against a green screen, the look is pretty good considering the overall budget of the project. It is definitely ambitious, which works both for and against the project. For the good, there is obviously more that CGI can do on a low budget than the practical SFX of a mega-buck summer release. On the other hand, it takes a certain talent to be able to act against a green screen where you have to “imagine” the action, and while some are up for it, others – err – lack the ability.

While some of the creatures (such as the bat-like ceiling dwellers) look really bad, most of the beasties look great, especially the Konglings. What is also a nice touch is that you never really know who are the good guys and who are the bad, and it is well played as such right to the end – and even then, there are some good conversations that can follow.

The more subtle crux of the story is that the multi-national corporations and the governments are deeply co-joined at the hip, and it’s quite clear here that it’s the former that are running the latter. Sound familiar? Wisely, director Wauters also uses a multi-national cast with a strong Asian influence, such as Pamela Chau and Thai actress Sara Malakul Lane (who plays two roles!). This was a strong choice and an accurate note considering the origin story.

The only real extras with this DVD are the trailer and a quite good 17-minute “Making Of” featurette that’s worth watching after finishing the film.

While I stand by my judgment of this being cheese, please note that it actually took me by surprise that I enjoyed it as much as I did, all clichés considered. As far as the name change for the release goes, well, I actually like the new one better, but I think it’s going to be confusing for the franchise, if there is one.