Hybrids Short Film Is Two Parts Alien Revenge Story, One Part Awesome Sauce
This article is more than 2 years old
Many sci-fi short films wear their creativity on their sleeves, and they try to fill those sleeves with an enormous amount of ideas, not grasping the brevity of the medium. That is certainly not the case with Hybrids, seen above, where the relative simplicity is its strong suit, developing a short tale in the best possible manner: with lots of alien blood spillage.
Hybrids is a production of Triton Films Inc., the Gabriel Napora-founded company who produced Neill Blomkamp’s short that led to the production of 2010 Best Picture Nominee District 9. And considering how interesting the alien beings are in Hybrids, that’s no surprise. The short’s director, Patrick Kalyn, has a background in visual effects animation on such films as Avatar, King Kong and, yes, District 9. He also won an Emmy for his work on Stargate SG-1. Completing this talented trifecta is actress Daniella Evangelista, who takes on her character as the active avenger in a convincing manner, and could probably lead whatever feature ends up being made from this. Because there’s no doubt something is going to happen with it.
The story, for those who haven’t watched, takes place 352 days after aliens arrived on Earth, looking for a “key” they believe to reside within the body of a child. Our main character is a victim of their search, and she intends to take revenge in any way she can.
The aliens look amazing, and move very fluidly. The fighting, while perhaps not perfect for a really good feature, looks like it could come from the best direct-to-video film imaginable. The bang-boom-pow ending just entices larger production companies to trust in a longer adaptation.
If you’d like to check out a couple more interesting short films, watch Spacebound, Payload, or E.T.A.. But if you’d like to get more of a feel for Kalyn’s work, check out the futuristic and tense short Somnolescence below.
