The Hybrid Trailer Splices Humanoid Aliens With Gun-Toting Mercenaries
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You know what you don’t see in movies? A team of mercenaries who take the week off to catch up on binge-watching shows in between volleyball matches. No, mercenaries get zero off-duty time in cinema, and they’re always under pressure to save the world from what often turns out to be a man-made threat. That appears to be the nutshell-encased plotline for Irish director Billy O’Brien’s sophomore feature, the action thriller The Hybrid, formerly known by the far more interesting name Scintilla. Explore. Discover. Blast. There is no other way.
The film’s first trailer, seen above, is about as simple as it gets, but it’s exactly the kind of simplicity that I like from gory shoot-em-ups like this. The Hybrid follows Abel Powell (John Lynch), a mercenary released from an African prison and given the chance to bring his old team back together for one last job. But this isn’t some bank heist or anything; they’re heading into a former Soviet state to figure out what a militia is hiding in an underground laboratory, and what they find is far from ordinary.
Surprise! A mad scientist has been busy splicing human DNA with that of aliens, creating a fucked-up bunch of humanoid creatures with genetically altered body parts. According to the synopsis, “the soldiers must protect and save the specimens whilst avoiding the threats of multiple predators, both human and otherwise.” So, I don’t really understand if they’re supposed to destroy everything or save it for evidence purposes, but I’m pretty sure either scenario won’t be a cakewalk, ending in massive deaths. Speaking of…
What in God’s name could do that to someone? I mean, it technically looks like pretty cheesy make-up effects, but thinking about a corpse actually looking like that is surprisingly frightening. The same goes for whatever the blue hell went on with this corpse.
Eesh. It’s unclear if these guys are victims or just failed experiments, though I’m leaning towards the former, seeing as how some of the modified beastlies we see here include a guy with a really big hand and this crazy-looking bastard, with odd little neck gill-holes and multiple puckered eyeballs covering his sockets.
It’s like one part Predator, one part Aliens, and one part Frankenstein’s Army, with a congealed blood cherry sitting on top. I mean seriously, the prop gun budget on The Hybrid must be out of this world, much like the alien beings at its core.
While The Hybrid was already released online in Sweden and Finland, there still isn’t a U.S. release date set, but U.K. citizens can find it next week at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Tell us how it is if you’ve seen it. We’re all eyes, er, ears.
