Cub and Hybrid – boys in wolf’s clothing?

Time to take a look at Cub and Hybrid, two horror flix about boys gone wild!

HYBRID (2007)

A little An American Werewolf in London, a little Wer—I guess you could say it’s   a hybrid!

This silly film stars Justine Bateman as a scientist (don’t be mean, that’s not why it’s silly) who cross-transplants organs. So, when the late Cory Monteith of Glee is brought to her with no eyes after an accident, she pops some wolf peepers in there. Damn, he looks cute with werewolf eyes.

Anyway, there are some local Native Americans who aren’t happy with her work and sort of adopt Cory to help him cope with the visions he keeps having of wolves fighting in the wild.

Cory runs around the city shirtless, is followed by dogs, does some rituals with the Native Americans, and eventually starts acting out violently against humans. Throw in a ridiculously out of place hip hop soundtrack (in a movie about Native American spirituality?) and a classic moment when Cory attempts to leap frog a security guard and ends up face fucking him instead, and you have a movie that you watch just to see Cory Monteith running around shirtless…and face fucking a security guard.

CUB (2014)

This interesting little film from Artsploitation Films captures the vibe of pre-pubescent coming-of-age movies like Stand By Me, Super 8, and The Monster Club, but is way darker.

A scout troop heads into the woods with a trio of older teen leaders. A campfire tale is told of werewolf boys in the woods. It just so happens that there is a feral boy out there…and he wears a creepy mask! But only one of the scouts sees him…a scout who has a volatile relationship with his leader. So when the scout sort of befriends the feral boy, who has a vengeful streak, all hell breaks loose.

It definitely takes a while for Cub to get to the good stuff. And be warned; the “good stuff” starts with a painfully long and disturbing scene involving the killing of a dog. It’s not so much what you see (yet kind of is), but what you hear and what’s implied.

All the thrills and craziness lead to an underground lair where the feral boy lives. The film amps up into suspenseful and brutal horror territory, and is enhanced by a fantastic, Carpenter-esque score by Steve Moore, who also did the equally effective score for The Guest, which I blog about here.

Beyond the simplicity of the plot, I get the sense that the film is sort of a commentary on “boys clubs,” and the transition from boy to man…which, in our society, means an obligation to become angry and violent.