Hybrid

Hybrid is another sublime slice of Fred Olen Ray madness. I love just about every film that Fred has ever made but Hybrid is especially memorable. Few directors can claim to have as unique a vision as Fred Olen Ray and this film is a perfect example of that twisted outlook. Hybrid plays like a cross between "Alien" and "Emmanuelle", only without the special effects of the former or the arty pretensions of the latter. This film is wonderfully trashy and a must see for fans of this brilliant director.

The action begins with a preposterous looking creature chewing up a couple of scientists. Right from the opening scene it is apparent that Fred has not lost his sense of humour. The creature looks like a bad Halloween costume and the gore effects are as unconvincing as ever. The film switches focus to the crew of a very unrealistic looking spacecraft, who crash land on a desolate planet. The crew seek shelter from bad weather and stumble across a soldier, who directs them to an abandoned laboratory. This is when Hybrid begins to rip off "Alien" in earnest and Fred Olen Ray really hits his stride.

The crew find the laboratory abandoned and quickly discover through a series of hilarious revelations that the scientists were experimenting on humans and succeeded in creating a homicidal cockroach/human hybrid. Instead of leaving as quickly as possible, this crew of dunces decides to spend the night at the facility - only to learn that the hybrid is not only alive but also hungry and horny. The remainder of the film basically involves crew members being killed and having raunchy sex. In other words, Fred Olen Ray serves up a large serving of quality entertainment.

The sex scenes in Hybrid are particularly amusing. A perfect example of Fred's unique approach to plot and character occurs when Dr Leslie, played by horror icon Brinke Stevens, and Nurse Carla, JJ North of "Hellblock 13" fame, decide to freshen up - by showering together. Before too long the women begin to massage each other to "relieve tension" and before you know it they are partaking in some soft-core lesbian action. Nurse Carla really gets around. She also finds time to seduce soldier McQueen, played by Tim Abell, in the midst of all the carnage. This scene would look cheesy in a 1980s porno but somehow nurse Carla's very thorough check-up routine works here. The cutting between Carla and McQueen's sexual acrobatics and the creature's killing spree makes for particularly classy viewing. Just when I thought Fred had reached a dizzying new height, Dr Leslie takes a sleeping pill and is molested by the creature in a scene that puts Sigourney's cross-species flirt in "Alien Resurrection" well and truly into perspective.

The technical aspects of Hybrid are pretty terrible. The action sequences are cheap and poorly staged, while the make-up and gore effects leave a lot to be desired. And that is fine with me. I don't watch Fred Olen Ray movies for technical virtuosity but for his outrageous imagination and unswerving dedication to bad taste. Fred's directing is as haphazard as ever and the actors vary wildly in skill. Tim Abell has gone on to bigger and better things and somehow makes it through Hybrid with his dignity intact. Poor Brinke Stevens is not as lucky. However, she can take solace in the fact that people are still paying her to take her clothes off well past the age of 40. JJ North is hilariously inept as Carla. I'm disappointed that she has dropped off the acting radar after a promising string of wonderful Z-grade movies.

Fred Olen Ray's hypnotic brand of crap is an acquired taste but once you get it, there is no going back. Hybrid has everything a B-movie should have in spades - poor effects, gore, gratuitous nudity and a rapist alien. This is highly recommended.

Earth is in a post-apocalyptic state and five military survivors looking for shelter before an ion storm hits. Come across a drifter who informs them of a scientific base that he's heading to and they decide to follow. When they get there, it's abandoned. While it looks empty, they soon realise why. As they come across a messed up dead corpse and find out this is the home of a genetic alien hybrid.

Yes, what incompetent schlock. I got some good wink-eye through Fred Olen Ray's poor man's version of "Alien" crossed with "Creepozoids" and a dash of "Shadowzone". Damn "Hybrid" will put you to sleep with its drawn-out story, blunt performances and systematic actions. While, it's basic stuff, there's nothing much to really compensate for its lack of refreshing ideas. There's no can of worms popping up here. Although there are a few unusual sequences that creep in and those moments do have your full attention. Like just what hell was going on in the opening minutes? It was re-used stock footage to confusingly explain why Earth looked like apocalyptic wasteland. An out-of-nowhere shower scene involving the voluptuous J.J. North and the always dashing Brinke Stevens, decide to spice up the outing by making sure that they are thoroughly cleaned for the messy onslaught that waits and then you get the horny alien hybrid getting its groove on with one of its victims. Since the rehashed story loses track for most part with its plodding nature, serious outlook and an unconvincingly brittle (and really heartfelt) back-story to build these characters. These tiny spoonfuls are certainly ludicrous, but at least they were diverting enough to catch your eye. As really this could have been more fun, if they decided to boost up the energy levels.

The rest of it didn't cut it at all. Your ears on the other hand, don't cope any slack at all from this lame script with its heavy use of wit and snappy wisecracks. I found most of it pitiful and state the bloody obvious with awful delivery. Suspense is non-exist in this pressure filled situation, the flat violence is weakly staged with its timidly unoriginal blood splatter, and most of the characters are an aggravatingly leaden bunch who do too many dumb things when there's an alien about. Wait to you see the horridly shonky alien design. The costume is like something someone would wear at a theme park, so not to scare the little kids. Somewhere cross between H. R. Giger's "Alien" design and a miniature Godzilla. Even the camera shots (lot of POV shots) steal heavily from "Alien", where it likes to focus on the creature's nasty looking mouth and gooey slime it leaves about. It looks too goofy and showing it in its full glory for the majority of the time doesn't help. Everything feels and looks plastic, not just the sets, everything.

This independent straight-to-video farce might go out with a bang, but for most part you might be battling yourself to last the distance.

The name "Hybrid" is certainly apt, since this film is indeed a mix of all that has come before, with not a single original thought in its head. But it deserves mention for actually being spoofed dead on in another film I watched, "Dr. Horror's House of Idiots". Yes, that's the title. Checking the original again, even the same names were used. No surprise here, as "Hybrid" star Brinke Stevens wrote the spoof :) She must have had fun getting even!

Best thing in film is seeing what appears to be extra stock footage from "Damnation Alley" Dig that crazy truck!

Even though "House of Idiots" is funny on purpose and "Hybrid" by accident, both films should be in a double-bill.

More cheap inanity from Fred Olen Ray. This one's a blatant rip-off of ALIEN, except made without an ounce of that film's creativity or technical prowess. Instead, Ray opts for plenty of softcore padding, including lesbian shower scenes and the like, and a whole lot of bad acting.

HYBRID is a film for fans of Z-grade movies only. The casting is very poor, as is always the case in his films, and even seasoned performers like Brinke Stevens don't appear to have got any better over the years. John Blyth Barrymore (half-brother of Drew) makes an appearance and Robert Quarry has a cameo, but most of the screen time goes to buxom blonde starlet J. J. North, who let's just say won't be bothering the likes of Kate Winslet in the best acting stakes anytime soon.

Elsewhere, HYBRID features a whole lot of dumb talk, a rubbishy man in a monster suit running around, and not a great deal of violence. Instead, we get stock footage from previous B-movies, and an overwhelming sense of deja vu which sets in after about ten minutes.

John Blyth Barrymore is to the Barrymore's what Eric was to the Douglas clan! A talentless hack who just appears in movies because of his family name. This movie is a shocker! A cheap, inept alien rip-off which has the obligatory nude scenes to appeal to the men! Poor special effects mean that you barely even see the monster and the most shocking acting known to man makes the people on Dawsons creek seem like great actors! One can only hope that all copies of this movie will be destroyed one day like what happened with the atari 1600 game "ET" and then this movie can disappear, and the actors can pretend it never happened!