zardoz-13
"Evil Elvis" director Andrew Prendergast and "Blind Injustice" scenarist Peter Sullivan have appropriated the venerable manhunt plot from "The Most Dangerous Game" and bolstered the danger by adding a Hydra, the chimerical, multi-headed snake from Greek mythology, to their contemporary horror epic. In "Hydra," three unfortunate men and one woman serve as the hunted on an uninhabited island while four wealthy safari hunters, who've anted up $10-million a piece, stalk them for the thrill of the kill. "I think whoever comes to this island is going to be in for real surprise," one of the four hunted observes with insight. This line of ominous dialogue exemplifies the effective use of dramatic irony. Essentially, dramatic irony means that the audience knows more about what is going to happen than the characters. Sadly, Sullivan's screenplay suffers from the loquacity of too much exposition about each character, the island and their respective predicaments. Most of the dialogue sounds amateurish. Not even seasoned performers can make much out of this gabble."Hydra" opens with four archeologists exploring an unknown island. A simmering volcano triggers tremors repeatedly and eventually these four encounter a gigantic reptile with three heads that assuages its appetite for human flesh. The beast dines on one of the four archeologists. The lone survivor, Dr. Valerie Cammon (Polly Shannon of "Snowboard Academy"), plunges into the jungle. The scene shifts to a tramp freighter named the Aegeas somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. Four egotistical big game hunters have paid Vincent Camden (Alex McArthur of the "Desperado" movies) $10-million dollars each to hunt convicted criminals. Each of the hunters has experienced heartbreak of some kind because a criminal deprived one of their loved ones of life. When the island that Camden has plied the seas for disappears, Aegeas captain, Mr. Sweet (Michael Shamus Wiles of "Fight Club") and his second-in-command, Mr. Winters (Dwayne Adway of "Soul Plane"), plot a course for another island.The uncharted island that they locate and schedule the hunt on is the home of the Hydra. Camden has kidnapped three convicted killers. Gwen Russo (Dawn Olivieri of "Heroes") killed her abusive husband with a shotgun. Ronnie Kaplan (Texas Battle of "Dragonball Evolution") tanked up on booze and killed a woman in an automobile collision. Bob Crick (James Wicek of "Steel Magnolias") raped three Auburn University students. Mr. Sweet added a fourth, Tim Nolan (George Stults of "Super Capers"), a former Special Forces soldier, who was under his control in Iraq. Camden believes that a higher justice will be served by killing these four for sport. What he doesn't know is that Mr. Sweet has a grudge against Nolan. They release the prisoners the night before the hunt commences on the island, and Nolan assures his companions that they have to work together if they hope to stay alive.Meantime, four of Mr. Sweet's hired help encounter the Hydra. Each time they blast away at it without realizing the trouble they have setting themselves for up. Additional heads replace the blasted heads, and the henchmen die. Nolan sets up several booby-traps and one of the four hunters, Williams (Paul Rae of "Coach Carter"), trips one and ends up with a stake through his thigh. When the four hunted wander up, he shoots the worse one—Bob Crick--and then the Hydra appears and finishes him off. Interestingly, Crick had tried earlier to rape Gwen, so he gets what he deserves. Clarence Elkins, Sean Trotta (Roark Critchlow of "Shark Swarm") argue after they discover Williams' shredded, blood splattered remains and Elkins decides to contact Camden. Trotta smashes the radio with his rifle butt and Elkins tries to get back to the ship.Meanwhile, the archaeologist who survived the first attack tells the hunted that the island showed up on a satellite mapping three months ago and they launched an expedition "in hopes that this might be the location of a fabled lost temple." She adds that they were hoping to find the Sword of Hercules. What they did find was the Hydra and the Hydra never stops hunting and it hunts humans better in the cold of night because it is attracted to body heat. Nolan repairs the damaged walkie and challenges Sweet to find them. This is when Nolan learns to his chagrin that each of them has been implanted with a chip so the hunters can track them with a GPS device. Valerie agrees to help them because she doesn't have a chip in her body. However, she demands that Nolan help her find the fabled Sword of Hercules. They can cut the heads off the Hydra and kill it permanently, but they have to use the sword. She warns Nolan that he will have to face a test of faith to accomplish something impossible so that he can get the sword. Nolan has to thrust his arm in a fiery hole to retrieve the sword. When the Hydra attacks them, Valerie shields Gwen and dies when the snake eats her. He slices off all the Hydra heads, except one. Predictably, the Hydra is back in the game. By now, Nolan and Gwen have made it back to the freighter. Nolan has to battle the snake again after it has eaten Camden and his sexy, show-off wife Dixie.The special effects are what you would expect from this Sci-Fi Channel entry. There is one questionable scene when the Hydra slithers aboard the ship and Camden and Dixie get away from it. The acting is rather lame, but when you consider the terrible lines that they were given, you have to make some allowances. Composer Gregory Tripi must have loved the soundtrack to the recent James Bond movie "Casino Royale" because he imitates it to the point that it sounds like copyright infringement.
ehtltd-news
The movie is amusing in most parts of it. The plot is OK for a TV movie, but the movie could've been more amusing if the creature was something more ghostly or mysterious, instead of the bad CGI and his rapid inorganic movement speed.The characters buildup was not that properly orchestrated, makes sense to me with all these characters around, but at least the lead character must have got special treatment, there. Acting is pale. Blood is not real, and camera shooting angles – my son could've done better job. I wish most of the killing were done by the hunted, which may have made the movie more plausible.Also I don't know how the scientist survived the bare island that long. And she was in good shape when she found them. I don't know how long she had to endure this monster chase and the island conditions.Will guys I watched this flick till the end for one reason: the ladies were nice to watch acting :)
Paul Andrews
Hydra starts as four complete strangers wake up in a dark room chained up, they quickly deduce that they have been kidnapped, are on-board a ship & the only thing they have in common is that they have all spent time in prison for serious crimes. It soon becomes clear what is going on, a guy named Vincnet (Alex McArthur) & US army Captain Sweet (Michael Shamus Wiles) have organised a hunting trip for four ultra rich businessmen who have had some aspect of their lives ruined by criminals in some way & the four kidnapped cons soon find out they are what the rich blokes are going to hunt & kill for sport & satisfaction. The four unwilling hunt participant's are dropped off on a seemingly deserted & uncharted island but they & their hunters quickly realise that the island is home a huge multi-headed Snake like creature from Greek mythology know as the Hydra & it has a liking for human flesh...Directed by Andrew Prendergast I have to say that Hydra turned out much, much better than I thought it would & is actually the first half decent Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' that I have seen in absolutely ages & I've seen quite a few of the things. Don't get me wrong, Hydra is no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but I did actually find it quite enjoyable. For a start the plot has slightly more to it than usual & plays out like a cross between The Most Dangerous Game (1932) & Turkey Shoot (1982) with it's organised hunt with human prey plot, an Indiana Jones film with it's fantasy archaeological angle & your typical Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' with the title beast which is a lot better & cooler than most. In Hydra we get a giant multi-headed Snake like creature that rips people to pieces on sight which is good enough for me although it's never given any sort of back-story & is merely presented in the film 'as is'. The character's are alright, the dialogue serviceable & it moves along at a decent enough pace with enough kills & action to keep ones interest. I didn't like how this giant Hydra creature could just appear out of nowhere without anyone hearing or seeing it coming, the story could have been more developed & more could have been made of the hunt & the cons fight for survival since that aspect of the plot seems to just be there to get a group of people on the island & not much else.The production values are alright, it looks a little cheap at times but it's not too bad. Usually these Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Features' serve up some of the worst CGI computer effects imaginable & while the effects in Hydra aren't exactly amazing they are better than usual with a fairly fearsome & cool looking central monster. There's some gore here, several people get ripped apart, there's a severed hand, someones head is bitten off & there's a decent amount of blood.With a supposed budget of about $700,000 this looks quite good compared to a lot of low budget horror out there. The acting is alright but nothing special.Hydra is yet another Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' with a CGI central monster, an isolated location & various character's for it to kill but the main difference with Hydra is that it works quite well & is fairly watchable if you know what to expect. Better than I had anticipated & actually quite good.
