After apparently being totalled in a head-on collision, a mysterious car is hauled into the bowels of a Chicago police impound garage. Here, it quickly sets about building up its strength by feasting on the motley crew of grease monkeys who toil in the depths of this vast, shadowy place. Eventually our blue collar protagonists realize that what they are dealing with isn't metal and rubber at all, but instead a giant, squid-like creature than over millions of years of evolution has learnt to mimic the appearance of various 1970s American muscle cars.
Hence the title: Hybrid. Well, not exactly, because “hybrid” implies that the creature is half-car, half-giant squid, whereas this thing is all squid but happens to look like a car, if you follow. Er, back to the movie …
Greedy supervisor Ray (Oded Fehr) reckons that they can make money out of their misfortune by trapping the creature and selling the story to the news channels, but the plan goes pear-shaped and the hunters become the hunted. Time to rally for a last-ditch stand. As always when a bunch of blue collar heroes band together against a deadly menace, a helluva lot of welding is involved.
Despite the dodgy zoology, it's all good, oily fun. Over and above its passing resemblance to Christine and Maximum Overdrive, the movie gives off a strong Stephen King vibe, thanks to the bluff humour of the characters and a monster that for much of the time relies more on guile than strength – catching its victims off-balance with an open door or luring them in with a bright paint-job. Together, director Eric Valette and veteran scriptwriter Benjamin Carr wring every beat out of what in other hands could have been pretty lame material, while the unstarry cast helps by making it less easy to predict who's going to end up under the bonnet next. It's nice to see Oded Fehr (Ardeth “It is written” Bay from The Mummy) cast against type as the sneaky Ray, and there's eye-catching support from Melanie Papalia as his bubbly secretary.
Admittedly, by the last reel Hybrid is close to running on fumes, but by then it's already paid its way with some pleasantly cosy thrills. It won't be the ride of your life, but this one's definitely worth taking for a spin.
