The Hyena (1997)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Emy (Cinzia Roccaforte) is left home alone after her rich husband goes out of town. It doesn't take long for Roy (David D'Ingeo) to show up and he claims to have Emy's sister held hostage and he's demanding $500,000. With the banks being closed the two have to stay together for the weekend, which leads to a strange turn of events when the two start to have a connection.
Joe D'Amato's THE HYENA is the type of low-budget sex picture that one would have seen on Cinemax at three in the morning. If you grew up with the cable station back in the day then I'm sure you remember the countless softcore titles that would appear on it early in the morning. That's basically what this is except that it was shot in Italy with a cast who probably didn't fully understand the English language.
I say that because it's clear that the lead actress was probably having the lines fed to her or she at least didn't understand what she was saying. The dialogue in the film certainly isn't the greatest but there are a couple times where the actress trips over the lines and her accent is all over the place. Obviously English wasn't her first language and she's clearly struggling to get the lines out. The same is true for D'Ingeo and several of the other cast members, although it isn't quite as bad. This helps one understand why dubbing was done a lot of times.
As far as the film goes, it's really not all that bad. If you're a fan of these type of movies then you should already know that the plots are usually very stupid and the main thing was to get to the next sex scene. There's no question that the lead actress is very beautiful so that part she perfectly nails. There are a few twists thrown into the mix and they are decent enough, although I'm sure most people will see a lot of the familiar things coming long before they actually happen.
THE HYENA is a pretty minor film but fans of the director will probably want to check it out. They'll also get a kick out of the main character watching D'Amato's ANTROPOPHAGUS on television.
