Hybrid (1997)

User Rating:

2.1/10   

Director:

Fred Olen Ray

Writer:

Sean O'Bannon (writer)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The Outer Limits of Horror

Plot:

A group of space renegades hook up with a drifter named McQueen. Together they hole up in an abandoned...

Plot Keywords:

Nudity | Lesbian Scene | Shower Scene | Lesbianism | Monster

Cast

John Blyth Barrymore	...	Dr. Paul Hamilton
Brinke Stevens	...	Dr. Leslie Morgan
J.J. North	...	Carla Ferguson
Tim Abell	...	McQueen
Ted Monte	...	Milo Tyrel
Peter Spellos	...	Sergeant Frank Blaine (as G. Gordon Baer)
Bob Bragg	...	Pike
Nikki Fritz	...	Susan
Robert Quarry	...	Dr. Farrell (as Robert Connell)
Christopher Ray	...	Hybrid (as Chris Olen Ray)

MPAA:

Rated R for some strong sexuality, and for violence/gore and language.

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 | USA:R | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park - 10700 W. Escondido Canyon Rd., Agua Dulce, California, USA

Company:

American Independent Productions

Trivia:

The APC in this film is the "Landmaster" from Damantion Alley (1977). The Landmaster really does have a working "tri-star" wheel system, and cost $300,000 to build in 1976.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Something to Scream About (2003) (V)

A gold mine.

For those who enjoy cheesy b-grade horror Sci-Fi, Hybrid is a gold mine of goodies.

The movie opens with a couple of minutes of what looks like footage from other sci-fi or disaster movies awkwardly spliced together with little to no attempt toward coherence. Initially I was wondering if this was why the movie was called Hybrid. Random shots of alien spaceships shooting at stuff in space, buildings and cars exploding, a few brief shots of some creature in armour shooting at the screen culminates in a stock shot of a nuclear explosion. None of the footage matches at all, the grain and film is different in each shot, some of it is in broad daylight, some of it is at night, some of its is clearly meant to be in deep space. It is presumably meant to be showing some sort of cataclysmic, apocalyptic event but the details are sketchy. None of the dialogue in the rest of the movie is that helpful- it would seem to indicate some kind of nuclear war but the aliens seen in this prologue are never mentioned and there is even mention of natural disaster at one point. Possibly the makers didn't know what footage they could get their hands on for the opening whilst writing the script and decided to hedge their bets. After this we are treated to a cheapo credit sequence complete with wonderfully cheesy music. I love the fact the title of the movie is in that green blocky computerised type of font that may have looked so cool and futuristic in the seventies (This movie being made in the late nineties).

After a comically bad and short second opening in which some marine types are killed by some unseen creature the movie proper begins. A ragtag group of scientists and military types travelling across a blasted post apocalyptic war zone (a nice cost effective desert) take shelter from a killer ion storm inside an abandoned scientific research facility. From there on it's your standard alien clone as our colourful cast are picked off one by one by a generic monster. In this case it is apparently a cross between human, reptile and cockroach, although it looks like none of the above and I see good reasons for this particular combination beyond those of the "WTF, why not, we're bored and have access to gene splicing technology" variety. It in fact looks like a dude in a really, really fake and rubbery looking 'Alien' rip-off monster costume with a stupidly long neck. It is quite hilarious when you do see it chasing after someone lamely shaking it rubbery claws at someone and shaking its badly balanced and over large cranium from side to side. The makers wisely only show bits of the creature from time to time- every few minutes there is a standard POV shot of the creature roaming the corridors followed by a shot its snarling teeth which may remind you of the snarling drooling teeth of another well known alien creature.

In its relatively short running time Hybrid has almost everything you could want from this kind of trashy pic- a rubbery fake looking alien, cheesy dialogue, gratuitous sex scenes, bad acting, clichés, impromptu and lengthy lesbian shower sequences, fake gore, lots of cheap props and sets, more bad dialogue and acting, creatures beating incessantly on doors, technobabble, alien rape, slime, gratuitous stock footage, loose endings and bad soap operatic back stories. Many will cite the lesbian scene as a highlight but it's all an amiable plateau of cheesy fun from start to finish. Stay watching till the end of the credits which make it clear that the makers of Hybrid were had no illusions as to the kind of film they were making.