2016-01-08

20160108: Horror Review--The Hybrid





Name: The Hybrid [Scintilla] (2014)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction    Country of Origin: UK.

Cast: John Lynch as Jim Powell, Morjana Alaoui as Dr Lyla Healy, Ned Dennehy as Harris,  Craig Conway as Mason, Antonia Thomas as Steinmann, Jumayn Hunter as Spencer, Beth Winslet as Dr Irvine, Perri Hanson as Goethe, Edward Dagliani as Corry.

Directed by: Billy O'Brien.   Written by: Billy O'Brien, Rob Green, and G. P. Taylor.



The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: Mercenaries invade a compound in a former Soviet republic.  At 36 minutes in, that was all that was accomplished.  They have some advanced intel, so they know how to penetrate deep (as in below the surface) into the compound.  It's a medical research facility of some sort.

Delineation of conflicts:  Something 'down there' is waiting for them, and is not friendly.  The mercenaries get stuck with hypodermics and gassed.

The reason for the effort was the desire on the part of the Soviets to catch up with UK-CH-US in terms of genetics.  A vastly old meteorite found on Soviet territory contained some DNA of unknown origin.  The scientific effort was to learn things about genetics using the DNA plus whatever was needed to fill in from the human genome.  Hence the title, The Hybrid.

The orders for the mercenaries from their client is to get the research and destroy the facility.  The hybrids have different ideas altogether.

Resolution: True motives and abilities show up, along with unexpected stupidity.

One line summary: Losing effort against human-alien hybrids.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 8/10 Clear images, well-shot, well-lit.

  b. Sound: 4/10 The actors were adequately miked.  Background foley and music are well balanced in terms of leveling.  The electronic compositions took the sense of the alien over the top; that is, helped make sections of the film totally unbelievable.  One might as well play tunes from the Muppets.

  c. Acting: 2/10 The performances were quite variable.  John Lynch was fairly good, but most of of the cast was quite bad.

  d. Screenplay: 3/10 The action aspects were fairly strong in the front end of the movie, but the science-oriented sections were sketchy, to be generous.  Toward the end of the film, the experienced mercenaries seemed clueless about any type of survival procedures, and got picked off needlessly.  Too many things were given no explanation whatsoever.

Final rating: 4/10


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