The tagline for Super Hybrid reads “Most cars run on fuel. This one runs on blood.” If any advertising execs are reading this, this writer would like to offer up some alternatives:
Driven…to kill!
This ain’t Cars. Or Cars 2.
They thought it was just a car. That was stupid of them.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s talk Super Hybrid. Directed by Eric Valette (unfortunately best known for a frankly awful adaptation of Takashi Miike’s (!) One Missed Call), the mode of transportation featured prominently in the title is outfitted with predatory instincts, can shape shift at will, and has an outstanding hunger for man flesh (pardon the term, a killer car doesn’t swerve toward a gender – if only humanity was this enlightened). After gobbling up two teenagers (one of whom has recently gotten the number of what was probably a transsexual – a story thread left hanging, unfortunately), our homicidal hybrid is involved in a competently staged crash and ends up in a garage owned by Ray (the reliable Oded Fehr - there are Resident Evil sequels waiting to be made!), who comes to verbal blows with Tilda (Shannon Beckner), the requisite female heroine whose tough exterior will be tested and her gentle interior revealed as the car wreaks untold havoc in the conveniently cellphone-unfriendly garage.
Valette directs an admittedly cheesy concept with enough skill to make it rise above its humbly-budgeted single location running time. Yes, it does bog down and some character development is shoved in despite the fact that we know meat bag after meat bag will be consumed until only key characters are left to surmise a plan as brilliant as it is dangerous. The origins of the car are illuminated via awful CGI but the darkness of the garage makes it largely manageable to stomach. Action is the requisite running with some gunning toward the end. By and large, Super Hybrid is rarely boring and certainly entertaining enough to leave on from beginning to end. Whether you’ll be attentively tuning in the whole time is debatable.
DVD Bonus Features
A solid 30-minute BTS and several trailers for significantly shoddier productions, including Sharktopus and Dinoshark (bravely touting Eric Balfour above the title) are included.
"Super Hybrid" is on sale August 23, 2011 and is rated PG13. Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller. Directed by Eric Valette. Written by Benjamin Carr. Starring Oded Fehr, Shannon Beckner, Ryan Kennedy.
