Hybrid (1997)

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.

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!

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*Brinke Stevens and a bunch of other people are driving through the desert looking for a place to crash and take a shower. They come across an abandoned research facility with the standard out of control genetic mutation ready to kill them. This makes Brinke Stevens all hot and sweaty. She hops into the shower with another woman and together they proceed to lather each other up. Speaking of lathering up, the viewer is cheering on the shower party. "OOOH, OK Brinke. Don't miss a spot. Clean her back. That's good. Slower. Slooower. OK Faster. MMMM..."Brinke Stevens shower in space is the best and ONLY reason to see this movie. The rest of the flick was a standard B monster movie. Not great. Or even good. But the shower scene was excellent. My God, there should be a shower scene in every movie. And Brinke Stevens should be in it.

*possible tiny spoilers!!* Firstly, please dont expect too much from this film, because if you do, you will shortly come to realise that it is gut-shreddingly awful.However, if you just watch Hybrid for what it is, it can be a very entertaining hour and a half...The plot is crap and unoriginal - a mish mash band of survivors in a post-apocolyptic world (presumably Earth) are making their way through the desert, when their vehicle breaks down and they have to find shelter from an incoming 'ion storm' - whatever one of those is, and are fortunate enough to come across an abandoned research facility!!Of course, within the laboratory, are no signs of life, and there just so happens to be a monster on the loose, (which is, rather hilariously part human, part snake, and part cockroach!), which begins to pick off our little friends one bye one...Fair enough, it sounds mince, but for reasons I cant explain even to myself, this is one of my most frequently watched movies - and that is not because it is a low budget b-movie, and thus contains gore and naked breasts...I think the main reason I like this film is because it really comes across as the type of movie you could make yourself with your mates - though not quite to the extent of Kevin Smiths 'Clerks' of course. I admire the simplicity of the movie, the tiny cast, (no extras required), and the fact that, though unintentional, the film is without a doubt, a comic masterpiece!Some of the lines are delivered so badly, that you cannot help but wet yourself. There is nothing funnier than when a film that is based on being totally ridiculous, tries to install genuine emotions and atmosphere within the fabric, when it just comes off as badly acted crap - which it is!Nonetheless, i reiterate that Hybrid is very entertaining, and should keep any viewer, (excluding, like, old people) happy to the end (which is crap).A solid 8 out of 10!