Customer Reviews

Created to Kill

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Shame on Passport Video. My VHS Tapes look better than this DVD. The transfer looks to be off someones 6 hour tape. What a waste. I'll think twice before I purchase another Passport Video.

EMBRYO is about Dr. Paul Holliston (Rock Hudson), a scientist who has recently lost his wife (also a scientist). Holliston hits a doberman with his car (a 3 ton cadillac) on his way home one stormy night. He rushes the dog home to his lab, where he is unable to save her. However, the doberman is pregnant, so the good doctor keeps the doggy fetus alive, injecting it with an experimental growth hormone. The little canine grows at an amazing rate, reaching adulthood within hours! Holliston names the dog "Number One" and is astonished by it's intelligence (the dog gets it's own food out of the fridge, drops the empty bowl in the sink, opens doors, etc.). Unbeknownst to the doc, Number One also has a mean streak, as is displayed when it kills another dog and hides it's body. Of course, Holliston thinks everything's great, and soon looks for a human fetus to try his serum on. He gets his chance when another doctor helps him acquire a fetus from a doomed prostitute. Back in the lab, Dr. H. performs his latest experiment with similar results. He watches as the fetus grows up at super-speed. Next thing he knows, he's got an adult woman on his hands (Barbara Carrera), with superior intellectual powers matched only by her exotic beauty. Some of the best parts of the movie come when she is busy absorbing knowledge. Named "Victoria", she is introduced at a party as Holliston's new assistant. In one fun scene, Victoria plays an arrogant chess master (Roddy McDowall) to a humiliating finish. Unfortunately, things get serious when Victoria starts getting sick and figures out that she is not long for this world. This causes her to seek out the method by which she can stay alive, at the expense of others. A pretty good mad scientist thriller, EMBRYO has enough creepy / funny moments to keep my interest...

I have seen Embryo twice on television and I have enjoyed it both times. It is an interesting drama with a touch of science that presents the dangers of cloning, which is quite a futuristic view since the movie was released in only 1975, decades before "Dolly", the cloned sheep. For the most part, it is scientifically sound and is an original concept for a movie.

Rock Hudson stars as the doctor who finds an injured dog on the road and takes it home to nurse back to health. The doctor has been working on advanced growth formulae, however, and is able to regenerate (or clone) the dog within a matter of weeks. He is thrilled with his success and decides to make the giant leap to cloning a human. Not only does this intrigue the viewer, but introduces an eerie and suspenseful feeling about what is going to happen, especially when his "cloned" dog has an encounter with a small white dog (you'll have to see the movie to find out what happens here).

His "cloned" human is a girl named Victoria, nicely played by Barbara Carrera. Within days she is a beautiful, fully-grown adult with the remarkable ability to learn quickly and retain knowledge. She becomes very close to the doctor and helps him with his research. Then, near the end of the movie, something goes terribly wrong. It shows how an experiment can take a turn for the worse and is a warning to the limits of human testing. You will definitely have to watch the end of the movie to understand what I mean.

Embryo is successful as both a drama and pseudo-science movie. It was merely by chance that I watched it on T.V., but I'm glad I did because it was well worth it. The acting by Hudson and Carrera is well done, but I think the story idea itself makes this movie good. I recommend this movie to anyone who has an open mind to science and the future.

all i can say about this purchase is "BUYER BEWARE".
could barely make out this movie the transfer was so BAD!!!
if anyone has acquired a decent transfer please contact me with details.
saw this as a kid at the drive-in and had fond memories of it. could only tolerate a few minutes of the dark choppy mess with even crappier audio. yuck

I remember seeing that movie when I was a teenaged kid. Unfortunately my DVD was not too clear, but I enjoyed seeing how beautiful Barbara was and still is.

Not a bad movie for its time and type but this is the WORST transfer of all time. It looks as if someone taped it off broadcast television. The first images, at night, are so dark and muddy it's not even clear what's on the screen. I had really looked forward to having this in my collection but after watching it I threw it in the garbage. Utterly worthless.

The rating is for the film not this actual DVD release. I haven't purchased this version yet and I refuse to purchase another horrible transfer or a bogus listing boasting widescreen until I get some confirmation. I've liked this movie but I haven't seen it probably since 1984 on TV. I hope that someday someone will give it a good transfer from an original source in the correct aspect ratio.

Most the video was dark and it was really hard trying to see the picture. The audio was good but overall, I would rate the quality of the picture as bad.

One of the worst video transfers of any of the movies that I own and, I have many movies. Its so dark and poor quality that I can't honestly recomend it to anyone. The only reason that it gets any stars at all is that I could hear it like radio and I like Rock Hudson as well as Barbara Carrera.

My review is based on the quality of the production and not the video transfer. This is an extremely muddy transfer that I doubt will be rectified in the future because of the relative obscurity of the film itself. In 1968 director Ralph Nelson tackled the issue of science and ethics in what I consider to be a disappointing result with "Charly". I found that film today as a dated psychedelic artifact. What I found interesting about "Embryo" is the way it tackles life issues. Released in 1976, it came out shortly on the heels of Roe v. Wade and just a few short years before the first test tube baby. Rock Hudson's character isn't some mad scientist who wants to play God. Recently widowed, his reasons for creating life are more altruistic. He even recognizes the necessity of morality to his creation, Victoria(Barbara Carrera), by citing the Bible to her. Unfortunately, beauty and brains do not alone make us human. Even if you are born when you are 25 years old it takes years to develope a core morality. "Embryo" is a compelling film with a solid performance by Hudson and an alluring one by Carrera.