Hybrid

A group of survivors travelling across the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Earth in the far future seek shelter in an abandoned military installation. Led by McQueen, a heroic drifter, the survivors discover that the installation was the setting for an experiment where a human was infused with alien, snake & cockroach DNA, causing uncontrollable mutation. The creature then emerges from the shadows to attack the survivors.

Ever since he served as DOP on the low-budget zombie flick SHOCK WAVES, Fred Olen Ray has carved out his own unique niche. All he does is make low-budget sci-fi, action & horror films.

While Olen Ray's films cannot compete with their bigger-budgeted rivals, his films do feature an odd-ball sense of humour. "Hybrid" is as typical as Olen Ray's work gets. The film is an extremely cheap rip-off of ALIEN, so cheap that it steals scenes from other Olen Ray films (such as DROID GUNNER & STAR HUNTER), using them for the film's start to depict some kind of apocalypse (which admittedly doesn't work very well) as well as use props from bigger-budgeted films, such as the Landmaster vehicle from the likes of DAMNATION ALLEY & APEX.

While it is a cheap rip-off, "Hybrid" does prove to be quite entertaining. The characters are surprisingly well drawn & acted. The actors know they are starring in a low-budget film & act accordingly. The visual effects are very cheap, with the monster being a rather poor man-in-suit creation that is so bad I ended up laughing – but that's the film's purpose. The creature even has a scene where it has its way with one of the female survivors, causing even more unintentional (or is it intentional?) laughter. Not to mention the fact that Olen Ray throws in a completely superfluous soft-core porn shower scene where the two women rub each other with soap.

this movie opens up with multiple segments of other movies strung together, i mean what the???

the acting in this movie is just terrible, the dialogue is that bad its laughable, like using the word besides three times to start a sentence in one segment.

this movie seems to try to redeem itself with random skin scenes that don't do too well at it.

there is cheap gore and a funny soundtrack. one scene that used the 80's synth beat for the music made it funny, instead of a dark atmosphere. i understand its a b grade movie, but thats no excuse for how bad it is.

a bunch of space renegades go into an abandoned military facility to escape a dangerous ionstorm but have something more "deadly" inside. guess what it is. an alien made of a really bad fake rubbersuit which makes you laugh every time you see it. the alien's noise is so terrible to listen to.

i give it a five only because that its laughable, and watching this movie with a bunch of mates makes watching this movie a funny experience.

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.

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.

I really got more than I bargained for in "Hybrid," and I mean that in a positive AND negative way.

On the plus side, this was an enjoyable altered-human-run-amok film. I categorize "Hybrid" with other bad monster movies, all of which are enjoyable in their lameness (except those rare few that are just plain bad). "Hybrid" actually makes an attempt at plot, and it succeeds somewhat. It's a little flaky, but it works. A lot of times the characters will reference events or something that happened in the history of the world they're on (I'm assuming it was Earth), and somehow I felt as if they just expected me to know what they were talking about. Minimal effort is expended on explaining too far into the history.

Hardly any effort was put into the "creature," but I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. It most reminded me of Godzilla in the man-in-a-rubber-suit aspect. "Hybrid" also utilizes the "drool factor" to give warning of the creature's presence, an over-used device, but I'm not complaining.

There is one reason I probably wouldn't recommend "Hybrid." Sandwiched between normal B-movie fun are two-and-a-half scenes of what could be classified as porn. Newer B-movies use nudity and sex in moderation, but "Hybrid" doesn't even attempt to moderate OR apply some sense of taste to it. This aspect of "Hybrid" completely ruined what is otherwise a decent film.

Don't rent this one if kids will be watching it!!! Other than that, I would recommend "Hybrid" to anybody who can take monster movies with a grain of salt. Even with the intermittent porn, this movie really gave me a good laugh. "Hybrid" is great MST3K fodder, and is great to make fun of.