Syngenor

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...

scientist engineers a group of genetically engineered cyborgs for use as "supersoldiers" to fight U.S. wars in the Middle East. However, things get ugly when the cyborgs malfunction and turn on their creators, escaping from the abandoned lab and stalking the halls of the Cyberdyne (Wasn't that stolen from "The Terminator"?) building, eating people and reproducing every 24 hours A-sexually. The main Syngenor, the Lizard-like monster spends most of the time slobbering and slowly stalking his prey, while the other types of Syngenor walk around roaring like Elephants and killing the Company's army (The "Soldiers" were the goofiest-looking clothes you'll ever see) spend most of their time running threw hallsways, while the company's insane CEO, David Gale, kills his co-workers. "Syngenor" is a low-budget monster movie that, without the presence of David Gale or the nifty-looking monsters, would have failed misserably. The monsters look cool and original for their budget, and David Gale's performance is hysterical--in fact, I'd go as far as saying that this is his best roll EVER, even beating "Re-animator". Over-all, a fair attempt at horror film-making, see it if only for gale. My rating for "Syngenor"- 6/10.

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.

Not completely a direct sequel to William Malone's 1981 "Scared to Death", but "Syngenor" sees the return of Malone's alien creation (this time there's even more and a new creation to boot as well). As a low-budget, late-night b-grade offering, "Syngenor" is actually very well pulled off. I was expecting it to look much cheaper. It remains trashy fun throughout, namely due to the spontaneously intense and ham-fisted performance of David Gale. You could never tire watching this guy perform! It might be his show, but the rest the performances do shape up rather nicely. A delightful Starr Andreeff and snappy Mitchell Laurance agreeably work off each other. Riva Spier is enticingly manipulative. Also showing up is Melanie Shatner (William's Daughter) and character actor Lewis Arquette.

Carter Brown is the CEO of Norton Cyberdyne, a corporation that deals with military defence technology. His latest creation under the project name "Dark Skies" is that of some genetically made super-soldiers known as Syngenor --- Synthesized Genetic Organism. However problems start occurring when one of them is released from its basement enclosure to leave a bloody aftermath, which involves the death of their original creator Dr. Valentine. Growing increasingly paranoid that somebody (within) is trying to knock him from his perch; Brown's sanity soon begins to spin out of control. Also he has to deal with a pesky news reporter and Valentine's daughter.

Pulpy hokum, which has many dumb and unintentionally humorous qualities… but in the end that's what makes it. Really it could have been more enjoyable than it was. The plot is nothing new (by starting off rather mild-mannered and then transcending into demented craziness) and the script is sub-standard, but bestowed a conceptual base of satirical barbs and tongue-in-cheek sparks. The tightly knitted execution at times was a bit shoddy (with some cheaply staged action --- like the onslaught in the basement involving an oddly dressed security squad), but the pacing keeps on the move and the optical / special effects (done by Robert and Dennis Skotak) and make-up stand up better than you would think. The Syngenor designs (a man in a suit with an amatronic head) look quite decent, as they're crafted with specific details. Although when they go after their prey, it can be rather laughable with their slow movements as they dawdle around waving their arms. Super-soldiers? Locked away in the basement? The feature was mainly filmed in the Ambassador Hotel, in Los Angeles which has an infamous history. Some moments have an atmospheric edge, while other sequences are truly devoid of it. Composers Steve Rucker and Thomas Chase provide a typically unhinged music score.

Slightly enjoyably low-end creature-feature oddity that's brought to life thanks to David Gale.

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 *****