When the white man take what belongs to the Native Americans, there be hell to pay.
The Lowdown
Oh, where to start.
Hybrid begins with stock footage of a pack of wolves hunting buffalo. The scene ends with the wolves surrounding a single buffalo and having dinner. When we go to the actual story, we meet a doctor who has transplanted the eyes of a Siberian husky into a monkey. Next, a security guard named Aaron races to save a coworker from a huge fire. He is blinded in an electrical explosion.
Maybe huge fire is not the right word. There are randomly placed barrels with fire burning in them. Ah, the limits of ultra low budget filmmaking.
Aaron is given the eyes of a wolf that a young Native American woman named Lydia found injured on the side of the road. When he gets the eyes, the optic nerves are plugged into his brain which apparently causes Aaron to think and act like a wolf. When the good doctor says he needs to rest and get aquatinted with his new “gifts” a rough military guy informs her “There is no more time! We must deliver him now!” See, he already called his commanding officers about Aaron, so they must rush him to them immediately.
And how about that dialogue?
Justine Bateman, the less famous sibling of Justin Bateman, is given much scientific and medical mumbo jumbo to spout. It is clear she is not comfortable with the dialogue and there is even one point where it is obvious ADR was done, as she stumbles through her lines on screen but the lines come through nice, clear and stiff audibly. There is also a Native American girl who spouts off about the white man coming onto their land and taking whatever they want. This is of course after she took the wolf off her land and to the white man to begin with. There is also one point where two characters are talking but neither of their mouth’s move. Awesome!
Lydia is such a ridiculous caricature of a person that she is laughable. When she sees Aaron, she realizes he has the wolf’s eyes and rescues him. Then the government decides he is their property and sets out after him. Throughout the movie, the military is shown as the big bad evil, another horrible caricature. That is all this movie is, a big joke with cartoon characters instead of realistic human beings.
Aaron also has visions and hears buffalo’s stampeding, all shown with stock footage. He also develops super human strength and amazing quickness and reflexes. All thanks to one optical nerve being connected to his brain. The good doctor explains that this problem is a psychological problem called lycanthropy. Yep, that’s the term for werewolves, and in this case is called a psychological condition and Aaron now believes he is a wolf. Of course, this means at one point he runs with a pack of dogs.
The soundtrack is full of rap tunes, so I guess that makes this movie hip. Look, I can’t go on. Hybrid takes a ridiculous idea and a horrible script, adds some of the worst acting I have seen and places it together with a director who knows nothing about pacing. It ends with the military (more horrible acting) on a seek and destroy mission hunting down Aaron. While hunting him they come across a teepee. See, they have to pound home the fact that Native Americans are good and greedy white people are bad. I need to pound home a fact as well. This movie sucks.
The Package
Thank God there are no extras on this DVD.