Syngenor |
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 • USA • 1990 • 98m •   • Directed by: George Elanjian Jr.. • Starring: Starr Andreeff, Mitchell Laurance, David Gale, Charles Lucia, Riva Spier, Jeff Doucette, Bill Gratton, Lewis Arquette, Jon Korkes, Melanie Shatner, Kenneth Zavayna, Roy Fegan, Julia Kruis. • Music by: Thomas Chase, Steve Rucker.      A synthesized genetic organism, created to be the perfect soldier, escapes from the laboratory weeks from completion. It begins a reign of fear and terror that endangers the lives of its creators and those assigned to hunt it down.
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Review:
SCARED TO DEATH was one of the very first ALIEN templaters, made at a time when Alien had huge success in the box office & inspired a whole heap of filmmakers to make their own homage to the film. Scared to Death was the debut of filmmaker William Malone, a former fan who turned to makeup effects & made the legendary mask for Michael Myers in the original HALLOWEEN before making Scared to Death & creating the minor cult figure of the Syngenor, a reptilian-based genetic cyborg (a being created from synthetic DNA) that fed on human spinal fluid & that could self-replicate within a certain amount of time. The film was not quite the success of Alien but slowly developed a cult following (I saw it on YouTube).
Despite the majority of people who call it a sequel, I believe that Syngenor is actually a remake of the original film. Some of the details about the mythology of the monster are changed (mainly the company that made the creature) & there is no mention of the events of the first film, which makes it a remake. I'm basing that on the technical side of things.
Anyway, Syngenor is a superior film to Scared to Death in some respects – mainly by turning the focus of the film from cheap horror to dark comedy. In that respect, it manages to entertain considerably, although it is never more than a passable sci-fi horror flick in itself. David Gale, the actor who played the infamous headless zombie Dr. Hill in the RE-ANIMATOR films, clearly has a blast as the insane CEO of the company & effortlessly steals the show. He improvised most of his performance in the film & even made the suggestion that the mysterious glowing green drug he kept injecting into his neck should be kept a mystery (I personally thought that the opposite should be made since it would clear up a few things but I'm willing to go with Gale's idea since it also makes the film share some similarities to Re-Animator & even seems like a nod to that film). This was Gale's last performance, the actor dying shortly after the film came out.
Apart from David Gale, the rest of the cast are mediocre. The lead characters are bland & reminded me of the heroines of the old 1930s mystery thrillers who make dumb moves & talk too much. The scheming executives are just a bunch of idiots who get killed in various novel ways (one executive finds himself the target of Gale's latest toy – the Death Rattle (an energy weapon that can liquefy its targets in seconds) & gets blown to bits within moments) & the security guards have the problem of wearing some ridiculous uniforms that look like a child designed them. The Syngenors look frightening but move so slowly that a snail could outrun them.
The film does make a better impression than Scared to Death ever did & whilst still a passable monster feature, it gives the Syngenor a better chance to become a cult favourite.
Review by DigitalRevenantX7 from the Internet Movie Database.
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