Syngenor

Total & utter trash, this moronic low budget Sci-Fi flick about a genetically engineered army robot that reproduces itself by laying eggs (!) and naturally turns against its creators before it's even properly finished. In some desperate attempts to thicken the unoriginal plot, there's the lame sub plot about a nosy journalist and his ugly girlfriend going undercover in the company and the awkward story about the Corporate Executive (David Gale from "Re-Animator" fame) who injects the veins in his neck with the same liquids as the robots need in able to function. "Syngenor" is nearly unendurable nonsense, made on a shoestring budget and featuring no redeeming elements whatsoever, apart from the over-the-top performance of David Gale. The supposedly extraordinary killer robots, meant to replace human soldiers to fight wars in the Middle East, are actually very deficient machines! They can't deal with fire or water, and they're pretty easy to kill if you just aim well or hit them over the head hard enough. On top of that, they only last 24 hours before incubating their own successors. And these faulty metal things are supposed to be the future of the US Army? He's dead now, but I'm sure Saddam Houssein wouldn't have been impressed. The first half is still remotely amusing, since the inept dialogs and cheesy massacres supply the film with a handful of chuckles, but then the whole thing gets too stupid to even smile at. The climax battles are exaggeratedly retarded, with a very Terminator-esquire sequence in which the leftover pieces of one of the robots melt together with human tissue, resulting in an ultra-hideous robot-woman creature. What the hell was that? My rating of 3 out of 10 is extremely generous, mainly just because David Gale was a cool dude who never got the good roles he deserved, apart from once in "Re-Animator".

At one point, they shoot one of the monsters in this so many times that he looks like he's dancing, waving his arms up and down. It almost looked like he was doing the "Robot". To add insult to injury, you could clearly see a thick root of cables coming from one of his feet that was obviously used to set off the bullet squibs. My God!

This is one of those movies that is so funny, you may not be able to watch it from lack of oxygen and blurred vision caused by tears. It is such a ripoff of Aliens that it's pretty awe inspiring. They stick a big cannon in this one poor monster's mouth and pull the trigger repeatedly, similar to when Hicks blasted an Alien to smithereens after jamming a shotgun in between it's drooling jaws and yelling, "Eat this!" There's even a scene set in airducts with the monsters chasing them. What I remember most about this was that the creatures posed almost no kind of threat. They walked around REALLY slowly and were really just there to get shot to pieces by the obligatory military hit squad. This is one bad movie that for some reason, gives me warm and fuzzy feelings. My interest was piqued by an ad I saw in Fangoria years ago for these really detailed rubber masks that they were selling. One of them was called "Syngenor" and looked really nice but it was a bit out of my price range. Then I found out that the mask was based on a character design from a movie and I decided that I had to see it! And then I did! And you know what? It was terrible! But funny also!

I sort of remember that water played a big part in this somewhere. And that in the movie, some researchers were designing these creatures to be the perfect soldiers or some other hoo-hah. It's bad alright but it's not that bad that it's unwatchable. I'm gonna go ahead and give this one big fat star and a half. Only out of sympathy and the fact that this movie has made me laugh to the point of getting internal damage do I spare it from a zero, which realistically, this chuck deserves.

RATING: * and a 1/2 out of *****

Sure, from the movie's cover, then I wasn't really expecting a whole lot, and the movie's title didn't really do much to sell the movie either. It was definitely something that was just oozing with early 1990s cheese. And that was exactly what I was expecting from the 1990 movie "Syngenor" as I sat down to watch it for the first time in 2022.

Writers Michael Carmody and Brent V. Friedman managed to put together a storyline that was classic early 1990s cheese, so in that account they didn't botch. However, in terms of "Syngenor" being a wholesome sci-fi horror movie, well don't go betting your last dollar on it.

The storyline in "Syngenor" was generic, so much that it was bordering on actually being laughable. The storyline was somewhat of a swing and a miss in terms of entertaining me, yet I managed to endure and sit through the entire ordeal.

The special effects in the movie were so-so. I mean, the syngenor creatures were just obviously people inside rubber suits, inarticulate rubber suits, mind you. And that just took away from the horror element of the movie, and sort of made it feel more like a spoof on the "Alien" movie.

As for the acting in the movie, well it was adequate, but you're not in for any grand theatrical experience. There are some familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of David Gale, Mitchell Laurance and Jeff Doucette.

All in all, I hadn't been missing out on any grand sci-fi horror experience here with "Sygenor". And it is definitely not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time. Nor is it a movie that I would recommend horror or sci-fi fans to rush out and get to watch.

My rating of "Syngenor" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

SYNGENOR concerns an eeevil corporation that is secretly building synthetic beings to be used as super-soldiers in the next big war. Shockingly, the deadly creatures are released to roam around the corporate building, tearing hapless victims to pieces.

This is all part of a plot to drive the corporation's head, Carter Brown (David Gale) insane. It works, causing Brown to lose his mind entirely. He proceeds to grimace, laugh hysterically, and continually ask people to hold him. As is common knowledge, Mr. Gale is a magnificent, USDA choice ham. He's also the best thing about this movie. His ultra-dynamic performance is pure platinum!

The monsters themselves, while not a total disgrace, aren't all that menacing either. The costumes are fairly cool, just not terrifying. That said, there is a cool scene toward the end involving a SYNGENOR in total meltdown mode.

Recommended for schlock lovers everywhere...

For those who enjoyed David Gale in RE-ANIMATOR (and who didn't??) it would seem that SYNGENOR (that is SYNthesized GENetic ORganism) is required viewing. Hell, Gale even injects himself (IN THE NECK!!) with what appears to be a substance VERY SIMILAR to re-agent! In this sequel (?) to SCARED TO DEATH we have a corporation by the name of Norton Cyberdyne (rubbish logo by the way) who have created a series of "creatures" to act as "supersoldiers" in any upcoming conflict in "rain-free" (there's the catch...) environments, namely: The Middle East. Things go wrong (of course) resulting in a handful of Syngenors breaking free from their Cyberdyne basement confines to wreak havoc in true cheap-horror fashion. The creatures themselves (though obviously inspired by a certain Giger design) are the strong-point - I'd even go so far as to say that they're THE BEST low-bud monsters since INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, problem being there's too little running, blood & screaming to keep them occupied. When the "action" finally arrives we're treated - in one scene - to a selection of Cyberdyne guards - looking like they'd just fell out of an old (pre-flowerpot) DEVO promo - marching to the depths of the Cyberdyne 'scraper with such little conviction you'd swear the comedic angle was intentional. Perhaps this IS supposed to be funny: the "learned" screenwriters attempt to parody the perceived insanity of The Military Industrial Complex (TM) via both "Carter Brown" (Gale) & Cyberdyne's infommercial promo material. In the hands of an Italian director, SYNGENOR could have been a DEMONS style contender - as it stands, a reasonable stab at an SF/stalker/gore flick which attempts to recreate the intensity of a certain other film (yep, RE-ANIMATOR again) during in final minutes.