There have been a surprising amount of killer car movies over the years – The Car, Christine, Killdozer (okay, not a car but you get my point) and others… and while we await the release of the latest example, Blood Car, in sneaks this oddball entry.

Rather than the usual supernatural origins for the bloodthirsty vehicle, Hybrid (or Super Hybrid as it's known in the US) sets up an alien monster story, as an ancient breed of creature, able to camouflage itself perfectly to match its surroundings, make the smart movie of mimicking a car, hunting down new victims. When one such creature is involved in a head-on collision, it’s towed to a garage, and before long, the shape-shifting creature – able to disguise itself as any car – is on the hunt for the garage employees. Unfortunately for the staff, boss Oded Fehr has sealed up the emergency exits to stop break ins, and is determined to capture the creature at any cost.

Smartly keeping the whole of the action to one location, Hybrid manages to build a certain amount of tension, has plenty of action set pieces and thankfully handles the horror in a straight-faced manner. Director Eric Valette improves on his previous clunker One Missed Call considerably, keeping things moving along nicely and while the film is no masterpiece, it’s certainly entertaining.
The CGI effects are pretty shoddy, it has to be said, but oddly enough, this actually seems to work in the film’s favour – it gives a decidedly oddball and strangely organic feel to the monster and the car morphing that better effects might not have. The cast are, for the most part, solid enough – Shannon Beckner isn’t quite convincing as the typical tough-girl heroine, but she does her best, and is at least suitably beaten down by the end of this lightweight but very watchable film.

The copy under review is ‘flat’, but the Blu-ray also contains a Stereoscopic 3D conversion for the four people out there who have bought 3D TVs. I can’t see the extra dimension adding much – in fact, given that the film is set in a dark underground garage, I suspect it’ll damage the film. But if you are so inclined, that version is there.

LES DE MONZE

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