Hyenas

Hilariously bad take on the werewolf myth involving a clan of shape- shifting hyenas who hunt humans for food. Despite my one star rating, this is one of the most entertaining films I've seen in ages, albeit for all the wrong reasons! The worst acting and dialogue this side of Ed Wood and CGI hyenas that make Tony the Tiger from the Frosties commercials look like a real tiger in comparison, this production is incompetent on every level! The lame characters, cheap "Star Trek"-style underground cavern set and pant-wettingly funny plot twists combine to provide a perfect Friday night entertainment with a crate of beer and some like-minded mates. Highly recommended for fans of bad cinema,Elvira would have a field day with this one!

This was another tough one to get through. I mean, when it comes to horror or movies in general, i'm pretty chill. This however...this is another kind of bad.

Directed by Eric Weston, this film follows a group of "WereHyenas" as they embark on a feeding frenzy in town. When a woman and child are murdered on the side of the road, the husband(played by Costas Mandylor) and cops don't know what to think. When a crazy local by the name of Crazy Briggs claims to know what's going on, Costas aka Gannon agrees to join him in the hunt of these creatures. Without knowing it the film jumps a few years. thanks for the heads up.

I could go on about how bad this movie is but i don't have the patience. So i'll make this brief. The acting is horrible. Like i'm talking barely a step above acting. which is funny because I've seen some of these actors before and they are not bad actors. everything was just wooden and uninteresting. felt like i was watching machines act.

It had almost no natural flow at all. The editing was the same. most of the time making cuts so jarring i had to do a double take to make sure i was watching the same scene. The CGI. Oh my god how terrible it is. Just look at the up top pictures for a example. Trust me, it gets worse.

From everything i saw, it looks like the direction is what was weakest here. Never heard of this Eric Weston before but damn dude, i've known some beginning student directors who could have gotten a better performance out of these actors.

Final note: It seems to me they wanted to pack this film with hot actors and actresses and did this in a hurry. They put in alot of nudity but even that was lazy. most of the time covering something half way up with CGI or framing it to where you had to ask, are they trying to tease the audience or just keep it at a certain rating?

Fun fact. I actually met the lead hot hyena girl in this film. Christa Campbell. Met her years ago on the set of, "The Taking of Deborah Logan". she was a producer i believe. She has acted before but was much better then this. Don't know what happened. (Again i blame the director) think his direction for her was, just look serious and strip. thats almost all she does in this film.

ok i'm done.

I give HYENAS, a 1/10

only i like the cover which seems like an horror movie cover but the movie is just awful, worse movie. I waste my time on watching this. very bad acting, no emotion on actors face, bad effects, complete non sense nude scenes from bad lady with crap acting, i was in the mood to see some horror movie but i really frustrate after see the non sense piece of horror.

It is horror to torture someone :)

i agree with this review by stratovarius_1996 "The story cant get serious since the acting is super bad. It has some good points like the woods in the dark are well directed but thats it. If u want to have a good laugh with your mates then this is the movie to see. I gave this film a 3/10 because of the laughs I had and also for Christa Campbell who is gorgeous.. although without nipples (!) Pass this crappy film and if you don't have anything better to do then go to bed."

It looks good on paper. Eric Weston directed it, well, in 1981 he made the cult flick and video nasty "Evilspeak" so I thought, this is going to be good. Sadly, only one minute into the movie and I knew it, this is going to be bad. But I gave it a chance. Costas Mandylor from the Saw franchise was in it but just face it, from a blockbuster to a no-buster. The idea was okay, changing the theme from werewolves into hyenas. But a lot of things broke this flick down. The killings are all of screen. I admit, you do see some victims but it's never that frightening or gory. Secondly, they used CGI for the hyenas, no prob wasn't it for the fact that it was badly used. And the gang of hyenas were based on Lost Boys. Even the acting for almost everybody was wooden. It's sad, I really am sure that it could be done much better. Of course a horror wouldn't be anything without nudity (?)so they gave us Christa fully naked but if you take a close you can see that she hasn't got any nipples. I have said it before, if you agree to do nudity than show it and don't hide your breasts after CGI. Really, what I thought would be a well done came out as a dreg. Now I understand the laughing of the hyenas...

Well, at least they tried.

One of the better aspects of "Hyenas" was the fact that they took the traditional werewolf cast mold, broke it and replaced it with hyenas. A bold move, and it might actually have worked, had they the CGI on their side. This approach was a much needed one, just a shame it failed.

The story told in "Hyenas", well there were two stories actually, was pretty simple and easy to follow. The main story was the one with Gannon losing his family to the flesh-eating shape-shifting hyenas, then being sought out by Crazy Briggs, trained and then seeking revenge. That part of the story was actually decent enough. The other half of the story, the one with the two rivaling street gangs, well that was just unnecessary and very strained to look at. Those thugs came off nothing more than muppets trying to behave like street urchins. That part of the story should have stayed in the cutting room.

As for the CGI effects, well I am not much of a fan of cheesy effects, and "Hyenas" was one big cheese effect fest. From the glowing red eyes on the hyenas (as well as their hybrid and human forms) to the downright eyesore CGI animated hyenas running around. The movie truly did not have the effects on its side. And I think, if they actually had a bigger budget for the effects, the movie might actually just have proved much more cool and would have raised itself up from below mediocre value. And the actual shape-shifting scenes, well, you have to see that to believe it, and seriously, try not to laugh when you do.

The cast was a sorted bunch to say the least. I was a bit surprised to see Costas Mandylor (playing Gannon) in this movie. He went from the "SAW" movies to this? Alrighty then. But he did a good enough job in this movie, though he was better in "SAW". Joshua Alba (playing Marco) was actually one of the guys putting on one of the better performances. I am not much of a fan of Christa Campbell, but wow, this performance was bad.

"Hyenas" truly had potential, but it was hindered by its budget. The CGI effects really brought down the overall enjoyment of the movie. Plus some of the acting and dialogue also helped tripping the movie along the way. It is a shame, because it was refreshing to see hyenas take it on to the scene, trying to kick the werewolves from their pedestal. This movie could have worked out so well, but it wasn't just meant to be. I am rating this movie 3/10 because of the story and because it had potential, it was just hindered in its wake.