Streaming Sleepers: In THE SHEPHERD CODE, Alan Delabie Leads A Vacuous Hitman Thriller With No Real Reward
The Shepherd Code is now available on streaming and digital from ITN Distribution.
Disclaimer: Joe Hallett is an industry stunt performer and contributes from time to time for Film Combat Syndicate. He worked as fight choreographer and associate producer on the following movie, and his involvement had no influence on this review.
Believe it or not, I’m a lot less of a martial arts movie monolith than I was in my twenties. Still, naturally, it’s always my hope that creatives operating in this genre put out something awesome and worthwhile. After all, even low budget films tend to bare fruit depending on how well they’re made, and who makes them. Sadly, that’s not always the case.
Alan Delabie is an accomplished martial artist who has studied under the same teacher who helped a nascent Jean-Claude Van Damme flourish long before he became a household name. Delabie’s career has since seen him tackle several dozen screen credits over the years, increasing from smaller roles to larger ones. For the last decade or so, much of his work has seen him thrive off the niche success of his webseries, Anatomy Of An Anti-Hero, leading up to 2022’s Borrowed Time III closer.
I’ve only seen a little bit of the webseries, and not much else of Delabie’s work, which really makes his latest film, The Shepherd Code, my first real dive into his work. Delabie also penned the script and directs alongside Lh Chambat, in addition to co-producing and serving as fight choreographer next to Joe Hallett who also worked on 2020 horror comedy Paintball Massacre in the same capacity.
To add, we get a cast that joins Delabie with Don “The Dragon” Wilson in a solidly dramatic presentation, and actor Silvio Simac who is best known for roles in films like The Transporter 3, Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing and D.O.A.: Dead Or Alive. It’s a casting line-up that solely intends on galvanizing fans of martial arts and action given the pedigree here.
The story itself is also the kind that would attract any fan of the genre as Delabie stars in the role of Alex, an assassin seeking an exit from his killer lifestyle, but not before finding the man responsible for the death of his beloved, Tania (Theresa Kassa). It is here, or rather in a quiet moment alone with Alex that his employer, Lewis (Wilson), seizes the opportunity to try and convince him to do one more job, in exchange for helping Alex find Tania’s murder.
The job in question involves protecting the Lisa (Victoria Axensalva), the snobbish daughter of a foreign president who is currently trekking in Europe. Meanwhile, Tania’s murderer, Edson (Simac), is out and about, busy completing his kill list as a hitman-for-hire operating with his own twisted code of ethics.
I would go a little more into the story here, although there isn’t much to divulge with sounding like I’m rehashing scenes just to summarize. Instead, what matters here is how the writing and the acting resonate in accordance with the story, and the sympathy that we’re meant to feel for our protagonist during his journey.
At best, frankly, Delabie and the cast are all playing parts with no real resonance or depth. Much of the acting is stilted, and the story reads and plays out more like perpetual filler than anything, and while Simac is really the only character who commands any real presence there is on screen, it’s largely undercut by the film’s overall lowbrow assembly.
Drone shots are overused, juxtaposed to some odd cinematography and editing throughout, as well as scripting choices that could have used some improvement. That said, I don’t really know what could have been done about the acting with respect to the writing. One character actually fumbles his line so bad that you can’t help but wonder why they couldn’t bother doing another take. Honestly, the budget can’t be that low, unless most of the money is in the suits Delabie wears for most of the film. Honestly, it’s a lot of suits. He’s in a suit for every scene, except for 16 minutes in when he’s in the buff and he eventually puts on a bathrobe.
Par for the course is the action, of which there is almost nil with the exception of maybe six action sequences, including about four of them displaying some major screenfighting stuff, and all of which are in the second-half. Very little of it has some pop to it – which is more than I can say for the acting, or the CG explosion that takes place in the latter half of the film – and even then, it’s a disappointment to watch unfold, right down to the finish.
Notwithstanding The Shepherd Code and my views on it, I’m all for watching another Delabie film after this. With that in mind, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned with the future of independent martial arts action cinema produced in the West. Whether it has to do with the budgeting, or the creative ends of it all, something needs to improve. The chances of someone out there learning of an actor like Delabie are never zero, and for that reason, a film like The Shepherd Code isn’t exactly where I’d lead off with.
