Customer Reviews

Syngenor: Synthesized Genetic Organism

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Syngenor was actually a much better film that I was expecting it to be. Syngenor, by the way, is short for Synthesized Genetic Organism. Norton Cyberdyne has designed the soldier of the future, a product of genetic engineering and plain old strong metal engineering, a creature designed specifically to fight in the deserts of the Middle East, a terrible force essentially indestructible. Unfortunately for all concerned, there is a power struggle taking place in the highest echelons of the company, and the plotters take the bold move of "accidentally" letting a Syngenor escape. When he kills the scientist who essentially created him (and quit before the prototype was really complete), the scientist's niece decides to seek justice on her own. The police won't investigate the murder, but she knows who and what is responsible. An annoying reporter looking for a good story joins forces with her, and their efforts lead us into the heart of Norton Cyberdyne. The president of the company, played by Davie Gale of Reanimator fame, is going quite insane under all the pressure. As things progress, more and more Syngenors are released to roam the building and basically just kill indiscriminately. These things are able to reproduce asexually ever twenty-four hours, so you've got Syngenors all over the place pretty quickly. There is a lot of action, as you can imagine, in the succeeding battles between man and Syngenor.

This movie is basically one of your better than average science fiction B-movies. It was great to see David Gale in action again, but his character actually becomes pretty annoying as his grip on reality quickly weakens. Gale goes well beyond the call of duty in terms of hamming it up. The acting is pretty good all the way around, though, and the Syngenor are pretty cool monsters who are much more than guys in rubber suits. It's always nice when the special effects guys take pride in what they do and give us a creature we can respect rather than laugh at. Naturally, you pretty much know how things are going to turn out, and you can figure out the Syngenor's vulnerability much more quickly than the desperate heroes who could really use that information do. The plot does sort of branch off into seemingly important directions that are never expounded upon or explained, but this is forgivable and offset to some degree by the fun mano-a-monster battle scenes. In the final analysis, Syngenor is a fairly impressive sci-fi B-movie that I found quite entertaining and fun to watch.

Nowhere on the cover art will you see that this film is a sequel to the 1981 film Scared to Death. That's because the media company does not want you to know that is a sequel as people will be less likely to impulse buy if they read that it's a follow-up. Despite it being a sequel, Syngenor is easily viewed on its own.

Unlike the first film which had 1 Syngenor (SYNthesized GENetic ORganism) running amok, we now get many. It's a basic story of military creation turning on their creators. David Gale of Re-Animator makes a likeable over-the-top performance as the heavy in charge of the project (look for many tributes/nods to Re-Animator).

Synapses new Special Edition DVD does beat our Elite's old DVD as the transfer is much better. The special features are basically the same. In my opinion it's not really worth upgrading if you own the old disc but this is a fantastic buy.

Make sure to pick up Retro-media's DVD of Scared to Death while your at it!

This is fine b-movie. It has a real annoying women character and a journalist that wont take no for an answer. Reccomended to anyone who loves b-movies

The Synthesized Genetic Organisms (Synegors) created by a corporate weapons manufacturer are set loose to dispose of anyone that stands between the company and its government contracts, and it is up to a reporter and the suspicious daughter of a murdered employee to stop them! SYNGENOR is a perfectly bad B-movie that serves as an entertaining companion piece to CHUD. It refuses to take itself seriously, downplaying its inherently weak plot while indulging in its creature FX and camp. David Gale hams it up as the deranged corporate head responsible for the chaos, becoming the unfortunate result of his own twisted experiments as he continues to inject himself with the Syngenor serum. The creatures are revealed far too soon, exposing them for the cheap rubber knock-offs of Giger's Alien designs that they truly are. Despite the often goofy plot and characters, the film does provide a few laughs and pockets of explosive gore that makes it an enjoyable guilty pleasure, but not one that can be openly recommended to all genre fans.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

SYNGENOR concerns an evil corporation called Norton Cyberdyne that is secretly building synthetic beings to be used as super-soldiers in the coming middle-eastern world war. Shockingly, said beings are released so they can roam around the Cyberdyne building, tearing hapless victims to pieces. This is all done as part of a plot to drive the corporate head Carter Brown (David Gale himself!) bananas. It works. Brown loses his mind entirely, which causes him to grimace, laugh demonically, and to continually ask people to hold him. Gale is all ham, but at least he's good USDA choice ham! He's also the best thing about the movie. As for the monsters themselves, while not a total disgrace, they aren't all that menacing either. The costumes aren't bad, just not very scary or unsettling. Now, there is a scene at the end where one SYNGENOR has a fairly cool meltdown. Anyway, I'd watch this one again as it has it's goofy charms going for it. For extra points, watch for Melanie "Daughter Of The Shat" Shatner as Carter Brown's niece! Enjoy...

I ran across this totally by accident and I am glad I did. Despite annoying leads, this movie is worth watching for a few reasons. David Gale as Carter was an absolute hoot. Man he was funny as the president of the company and he hammed it up to no end. Then there was Paula played by Riva Spier. She was dispicable. You had to love her. Carter and Paula deserved a movie of there own. Maybe their eternity together in Hell would make a plot of some kind. Anyway, the third thing I liked about this film were the creatures, the Syngenors. No cheesie effects here. Very well done. Kind of low budget but very watchable. The wrap up was predictable but fun. In fact the whole film was fun. I just wish the daughter of the scientist who worked on the Syngenor project and the hero reporter she hooks up with weren't so darned annoying. I cheered more for the evil Paula and the nut case Carter than I did for them. You know what would have made this one better? A sequel!!! Woo-hoo. Bring it on. Anyway, if you like 'B' movies this is a pretty good way to spend an hour and a half.

As I like watching sci-fi movies once in a while, I rented SYNGENOR with no special prejudices in mind. Director George Elanjian Jr.'s filmography includes a few TV shows and two volumes of Playboy Video Magazine. It could be worse, after all. Well, I must admit that I watched SYNGENOR until its end only because of the performance of David Gale who plays a drug addicted director becoming completely insane during the course of the movie. He's really very funny in this role.

The rest of the movie is not so funny mainly because of the editing; it seems that important scenes have been cut or simply not shot by the director. The syngenors are absolutely ridiculous, lacking the zest of humanity that can transform a monster in a creature worthy of staying in the memory of the movie lover. Too bad.

A DVD zone dusty shelves.