Syngenor

Syngenor (1990)

Susan is a nice girl that happens to live with her Uncle Ethan. While he may not look the part Uncle Ethan is a mad scientist type that has recently left his position with a major corporation over his latest project. He was developing a super solider for them that would be able to function in the desert without water and be nearly indestructible. When one of the creatures breaks free and kills the good doctor the company kicks into damage control and tries to cover the whole thing up. Susan teams up with a reporter to break into the companies HQ to get evidence that her Uncle was murdered by one of the creatures just as the creatures get loose and go on a killing spree. If that weren’t enough the companies CEO goes a bit nuts, kills most of the board of directors and locks them all in the building!

My biggest problem with this movie is the script and story. There are so many plot holes and unexplained plot lines that the movie gets a bit confusing and really silly at times. For example the CEO (played by the great David Gale) is clearly nuts and is shooting up with something that isn’t helping matters. Is this drug part of the Syngenor project or is it the green goo from Gale’s other big horror movie from the time Reanimator? Also how does no one notice the giant cocoon on the floor of the Susan character’s garage? Well except for the reporter who only mentions it days later! Oh and the indestructible Syngenor’s seen to drop pretty damn fast when they are shot with a shotgun, as you can tell from the exploding heads. In addition to this the movie is populated with just about every stereotypical character you would expect in a movie like this, the reluctant hero, the driven heroine, the evil corporate lackeys, and the crazed CEO that makes everything worse with his greed. The cast is never really given a chance to do anything at all with the story, with the exception of David Gale. While his character is inexplicably insane and becomes super violent he does get a chance to chew thru some scenery in a memorable performance.

Now as much as I’ve ripped on the story I have to admit that the special effects are pretty damn cool. We don’t get much in the way of kill scenes, but the creature design more than makes up for it. Each of the Syngenor creatures is a unique looking individual, which is very impressive. In many of these lower budget films all of the creatures look exactly the same. But here they are all slightly different, which is more realistic (if a creature feature is ever realistic). Toss in a hybrid Syngenor/Human at the end of the movie and you have a very impressive makeup job. The other technical bit and pieces are all pretty decent. Even though the movie was made in 1990 it does still have that 80s look and feel to it, which comes from the wardrobe and music queues. Hell check out the jumpsuits for the corporations security team. Does anything scream out 80’s movie like metal shoulder pads?

Syngenor has it’s obvious flaws. But in my opinion makes up for it with some great creatures and David Gale’s over the top performance. Not worth the $20 price tag, but well worth a rental.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer