Hyenas

Hilariously bad take on the werewolf myth involving a clan of shape- shifting hyenas who hunt humans for food. Despite my one star rating, this is one of the most entertaining films I've seen in ages, albeit for all the wrong reasons! The worst acting and dialogue this side of Ed Wood and CGI hyenas that make Tony the Tiger from the Frosties commercials look like a real tiger in comparison, this production is incompetent on every level! The lame characters, cheap "Star Trek"-style underground cavern set and pant-wettingly funny plot twists combine to provide a perfect Friday night entertainment with a crate of beer and some like-minded mates. Highly recommended for fans of bad cinema,Elvira would have a field day with this one!

How do you say something good about a film that has been universally panned?

Well, Christa Campbell (The Wicker Man, Day of the Dead) is in it. That is always a positive comment. There was definitely more than one skintastic moment before she changed into a hyena.

For the ladies, there is Costas Mandylor (SAW IV, V, VI).

Remember Meshach Taylor from Designing Women? He does a good crazy person who knows all about the creatures.

If nothing else, Amanda Aardsma will make you want to find out about Frisians. Her brother David is a Yankee pitcher, by the way.

A few surprises at the end as Crazy Briggs replaces his recruits.

All in all, it kept my interest and is worth another watch.

The one thing I can say for this movie is that the quality of the cinematography is fantastic. Being a Costas Mandylor fan, it was awesome to see great closeup shots of him with those sparkling blue eyes. The plot itself was alright, nothing to rave about. The subplot involving rival teens seemed pointless to me at first, but after watching the movie in it's entirety I can see why they put it in the film. The downfalls of this film were the CGI/special effects. The transitions from humans to hyenas were so blatantly obvious and unbelievable. Also the "hyenas" themselves were basically computer animation. The acting was fairly decent. There was a lot of predictability in the writing. I would watch this movie again sometime.

It looks good on paper. Eric Weston directed it, well, in 1981 he made the cult flick and video nasty "Evilspeak" so I thought, this is going to be good. Sadly, only one minute into the movie and I knew it, this is going to be bad. But I gave it a chance. Costas Mandylor from the Saw franchise was in it but just face it, from a blockbuster to a no-buster. The idea was okay, changing the theme from werewolves into hyenas. But a lot of things broke this flick down. The killings are all of screen. I admit, you do see some victims but it's never that frightening or gory. Secondly, they used CGI for the hyenas, no prob wasn't it for the fact that it was badly used. And the gang of hyenas were based on Lost Boys. Even the acting for almost everybody was wooden. It's sad, I really am sure that it could be done much better. Of course a horror wouldn't be anything without nudity (?)so they gave us Christa fully naked but if you take a close you can see that she hasn't got any nipples. I have said it before, if you agree to do nudity than show it and don't hide your breasts after CGI. Really, what I thought would be a well done came out as a dreg. Now I understand the laughing of the hyenas...

Following a series of grisly murders, a hunter and his protégée team up together to find the culprit terrorizing their small town and set out to stop the vicious shape-shifting creatures responsible from continuing their rampage.

This turned out to be quite an enjoyable effort. One of the better elements is the new and somewhat original take on werewolves provided here where they're not portrayed as typical humans but more like rabid animals with the unique ability to shape-shift rather than be afflicted with a curse or other such condition. That, combined with their obvious pack-like attitude, creative back-story and absolutely cruel viciousness makes for an absolutely appealing creature that gets a lot right here, including times where it really drives up the tension as they stalk their prey or simply engage in stealth tactics to force their victims into a deadly situation. As well, there's a lot of rather fun confrontations here with the creatures including the opening encounter at the highway trap, the forest shoot-out that initially encourages belief in their existence for the skeptical aide and the garage encounter that really serves as the film's biggest and most chilling sequence as the trapped victim slowly realizes his doom in the darkened garage and slowly goes insane with their tormenting before springing the final trap. It's repeated to nice success during the woodland encounter but just doesn't have the same impact as earlier, and thankfully the final encounter at the house is where it gets to the highest mark with a spectacular assault on both sides from the creatures and the hunters' defenses coming into solid showings. There's still a few flaws here, including the absolutely inane CGI for the creatures in their animal form which looks inherently fake and quite laughable due to the rather distracting nature it implies throughout the scene. As well, the fact that it tends to employ a few extra plot lines that aren't needed is a little confusing which spreads the film out a little longer than it really should be, but overall there's a lot to like here if the flaws aren't too damaging.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Full Nudity and minor drug use.