It is no secret that human-caused pollution is damaging the ocean.  Scenes like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch remind us that even our single-use trash can last for a long time and cause severe damage to the ocean environment.  The image below is of the patch, a shocking example of the extent to which our species has harmed the ocean. The effects of this pollution, along with the phenomenon of climate change, leave many species at risk for extinction.  

The short film Hybrids gives us an alternative response of nature to our polluting ways, although it is no less horrifying.  Instead of going extinct, Hybrids describes a world where sea creatures have fused with the trash we have thrown in the ocean.  This film begins with a grouper with the body of an oil barrel, which is then eaten by a shark with the face of a car. Crabs fused with bottle caps eat the dead grouper. Then a turtle with the shell of a barbecue grill eats one of the crabs.  The shark returns to hunt the turtle, but a giant squid emerges and kills the shark.  The grill turtle escapes to the shore, where a bird of prey made out of a tire finds it and attacks.  This ending shows us that not even the surface animals were able to escape the evolution into hybrids.  The different interactions between these creatures reveal to us that natural processes are still intact.  However, in spite of these normal occurrences of nature we can see that nothing is as it should be.  From the piles of trash to the hybrids themselves, we can see humanity's influence has created a haunting new world.   Our species was unable to conquer nature, all we did was make it more terrifying than ever before.  Hybrids include themes common to many of the other ocean ecohorror texts, including fear of the unknown and man’s relationship to nature.  This film uses these fears to create both effective ecohorror and deliver a powerful message.

Theme: Fear of the Unknown

 Hybrids gets its power from its ability to play on human imagination and innate fears.  The scenes in this film force us to imagine the processes occurring beneath the surface of the ocean as a result of human pollution and destruction. It is difficult to predict what the future of our planet will look like if nothing is done about these issues.  The purpose of Hybrids is to answer that question. It does so jarring body horror with powerful music and audio to mimic a true horror movie.  This is a fitting choice to portray the horror of a world our species has created in this film.  What makes this film interesting is that there are no humans shown in it, but we can see the disaster they have caused.  However, that is one of the few things clearly made known in this film.  Hybrids leaves us with questions of humanity's relationship to these creatures, and whether this is a future we could be headed for.  We know so little of the ocean that the evolutions shown in this film could be happening right now and we might never know. Hybrids connects two things we do know: we are polluting the ocean to dangerous levels, and that nature is capable of evolving in response to environmental pressures. It then combines them into a shocking scenario that we know is unrealistic but are still unable to say is impossible because the future is so unknown.   Because of these doubts about the future, this film doesn’t seem as unrealistic as it should be.  This creates effective fear in viewers' minds as they view a possibility for the world they are creating.  Hybrids' exaggerated world of trash taps into viewers anxieties about the future by showing something beyond their worst fears.  It also plays on their fear of the unknown by setting these scenes in the ocean and not where humans actually tend to live, the surface.  This creates effective ecohorror that both scares the viewers and leaves them with many questions about the role humans had in making the scenes in Hybrids happen.  Hybrids is a warning meant to elicit a response, and viewers are left to decide for themselves how we can now face the future knowing this possibility for our world.  

Theme: Man’s relationship to nature

In Hybrids, themes and processes of nature are a constant presence: we see the death of the barrel grouper at the hands of the shark, then the shark is itself eaten by the giant squid, and the grouper is eaten by bottle cap crabs.  Left out of these grisly scenes is humanity. 

Viewers are forced to confront possibilities in this film that in the end nature outlasted our species, being able to adapt where we couldn’t.  Maybe nature even used these hybrid creatures to wreak vengeance on the species who destroyed their home, which is something found very often in other ecohorror texts. By not showing a human face viewers can connect to, the focus shifts to the world humans have created.  Viewers face questions of the future we have chosen to create for our world, and what our species’ relationship to this future will be. Like many other ecohorror texts, we can find that in the world of Hybrids man was unable to conquer nature.  In spite of everything we did to it, it lives on.  In this new world, nature’s relationships remain the same, such as predator-prey and detritivore.  What we do not know is the relationship of man to this new nature, and this creates fear and unease in the viewer as the fate of our species remains unknown.  This helps effectively convey the point that not only are we destroying the world around us through our pollution, but we might also be destroying ourselves.  Through this and the other themes present in this story, Hybrids leaves a powerful message without saying a single word, letting the images speak for themselves.  

Connection to Main Theme

While Hybrids is a very different style than the other ecohorror texts explored in this exhibit, it still holds true to what an ocean ecohorror text should be.  The hybrid creatures shown in this film were created as a result of human actions, similar to other ecohorror texts like Godzilla.  While Hybrids does not show these creatures attacking and destroying humans, it does not need that to scare the audience.  What makes Hybrids a great example of Ocean Ecohorror is not just the body horror and grisly scenes of death and blood as the film climbs up the food chain.  The world of Hybrids is a horror in itself, and there is no need for words on a screen, damsels in distress, or the destruction of human cities to prove that.  Hybrids set out with a goal similar to many other ecohorror texts: to raise awareness for the consequences of human actions by exploring a possible future we could be creating for ourselves.  While Hybrids accomplishes its goal in very different ways than the other ocean ecohorror texts shown in this film, it still is very effective.  Thus, Hybrids belongs in the genre of Ocean Ecohorror, effectively scaring readers while also calling attention important issues affecting the world.