The IMDb rating for this movie is 4 stars. No, no, no, no, no ----Nooooo! To be fair, this movie is nowhere under 5 stars. I think it deserves 6. It's about a shape-shifting "Super Hybrid" (they call it) that assumes the form of a car to hunt and attract victims to it (Come on! You're a horror vet. You've seen and heard crazier ideas). So people step into the car, peer into it, or generally get too close to it --and they're lunch. Of course the Hybrid is able to go from any make or model to any other as suits it. So reader, is that really your car parked at the corner? Best check under the hood before you get in.
The movie starts out with the Hybrid, sleek and black, cruising the Chicago streets one night. There are some good shots of it from different angles (including nice sky views). It not only looks cool, but ominous and deadly; predatory. Shortly it drives thru a back alley some place and waits for any sucker who will take an interest in it. It will be a nice night for it because 2 do.
Later, as it is going WHO KNOWS WHERE, it either accidentally or deliberately has an accident. It is taken to the Chicago District Garage (so the sign says) which is presently under repair and so is not accepting any more cars now. The guy who towed the Hybrid there tells the mechanic some sob story about a pregnant wife and the mechanic allows him to leave the car there. Big mistake!
The people who work at the garage, 7 in all; 2 women and 5 men, including the boss (an obnoxious guy named Ray) become trapped inside with the Hybrid. The emergency exit doesn't work because Ray "the genius" welded it shut. Even sealed off windows. "Why'd he do that Boloxxxi?" --Well reader, he said he wanted to keep junkies out. Apparently he's never heard of doors that only open from the inside --or with keys either, that he could have conveniently hung near the door or kept on his person. To top things off, it's a weekend and no one was coming by until Monday morning. I think we can both agree here that predators love stupid people.
You know, I first became aware of this movie a few months back when I rode up to the IMDb website on my trusty steed Hewlett Packard. "Easy, HP", I said, "Whoa, boy! It's only the IMDb website. Nothing to fear". So I checked out the movie, saw the ratings and what some people said about it. Discouraged, I mounted HP again and rode off into the Cyber sunset. A few months later I returned again to check Super Hybrid's rating; no change. I'm a big horror movie fan so I decided that at 4 stars it can't be that bad. I was not optimistic.
To my surprise and delight I enjoyed the movie. It was a solid horror flick. What I learned is that you can generally rely on a consensus of people's opinions when they are to the extreme; very bad or very good (3 stars or less, 7 stars or more). But something close to the middle can be deceptive because it is possible that it could be plus or minus 1 or 2 more stars. In which case, it badly falls thru the IMDb ratings crack as either a better or worse movie than it actually is.
In this instance, Super Hybrid is 1 or 2 more stars better than it is given. In closing, let me say reader that I felt obliged to get some justice for this entertaining movie. You know, like someone who sets out to clear the name of someone wrongly accused of something. This movie is wrongly accused of being only 4 stars. It's better than that. Enjoy. Away, Hewlett! Justice has been served! Love, Boloxxxi.
