Hybrid (DVD)

As the Prius is to motoring enthusiasts, Hybrid is to the horror movie fan. It gets the job done, but it's slow and gutless. Part of Genius Products' direct-to-disk "Maneater" series of films, Hybrid is the least gory of them and seems less interested in the creature-feature aspect than it does the paranormal romance angle.

Cory Monteith plays Aaron Scates, an innocent blind patient who goes into the hospital for a surgery he hopes will restore his sight… and comes out in need of Kibbles n'Bitz. You see, mad scientists (one of whom is played by a wan Justine Bateman) have decided to implant the eyes of a wolf into Aaron, and those ocular nerves run electrical impulses into his brain, forcing him to behave, well, rather wolfishly. Unable to control his impulses any longer, Aaron bolts from the research facility and runs amuck in the real world until he is intercepted by a gorgeous Native American mystic named Lydia (Tinsel Korey).

Kind of a cross between The Eye and The Incredible Hulk, Aaron is burdened with unwanted visions from the donor of his peepers and imbued with an uncontrollable rage he's desperate to tame. With Lydia's help, Aaron tries to learn to balance his homo sapiens and canis lupus selves into one workable organism. Meanwhile, the immoral surgeons at the lab have sent out a ruthless tactical retraction team to find Aaron and bring him back before the populace gets wind of their evil experiments.

As far as acting goes, "the Coreys" (Cory Monteith and Tinsel Korey… get it?) are up to snuff, but their dialogue and scripted action is so poorly written (by All Dogs Go To Heaven 2 scripter Arne Olsen), there is not much they can do but appear wooden — that is, when glimmers of earnest embarrassment aren't flickering through.

Listlessly directed by Yelena Lanskaya (The Colt), Hybrid can’t seem to decide whether it's a fantasy, a thriller, or a romance. But it is definitely not a horror or monster movie.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson