Syngenor

Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: 10/28/08
Director: George Elanjian Jr.
Cast: Starr Andreef, Mitchell Laurence, David Gale, Charles Lucia, Riva Spier
Year: 1990
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The Movie:

In 1990, director George Elanjian Jr., who has more or less made his mark with some television and Playboy Video work, directed this cheaply made psuedo-sequel to the 1982 Alien rip-off, Scared To Death.

Falcon Crest stalwart, Star Andreef, plays feisty young Susan Valentine, who gets pulled into some under the table big business dealings when her Uncle Ethan is killed by some sort of creature. A nosey reporter finds out about her Uncle's connection to the Norton Cyberdyne corporation and when he finds out about his death, begins investigating the circumstances surrounding it with Susan's help.

Their investigation leads them to Carter Brown, the shady and very possibly insane C.E.O. of the company (played with no small amount of enthusiasm by the one and only David Gale, best know from the first two Re-Animator films) who is continually injecting himself with some glowing green liquid which leads him to go on some rather strange rants against whoever happens to be around at the time.

Susan finds out the hard way about her Uncle's involvement in the development of some super soldiers known as SYNthesized GENetic Organisms, or Syngenor for short. They soon discover it was an escaped Syngenor that killed her uncle and that Carter Brown and his evil corporate cohorts are brewing more of the monsters in the basement of their headquarters and Carter is not afraid to unleash them upon an unsuspecting public!

Ok, so now that the plot synopsis is out of the way, how does the movie actually fare? Well, it's a fast paced film with a great, crazed performance from Gale who chews through the scenery like a beaver through a twig. He's totally over the top, and his presence alone makes the movie worth looking at for those who know and love his special brand of acting. So it has that in its favor.

And that's about all it has.

Though the guys in rubber suits…err... I mean, creature effects, are interesting, they're blatant Alien rip offs right down to the tubes on the back and the way that hey crawl around through the air ducts after their prey. There are scenes in this movie that literally just swipe from the more famous sci-fi horror film it wishes it could be. While this proves to be rather amusing in a 'so bad it's good' kind of way, it doesn't make it a good film, just an unintentionally funny one.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Synapse presents Syngenor in a pretty slick looking 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Nice colors, strong black levels and a fine level of detail ensure that the picture stays strong throughout playback. There aren't any issues with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement and print damage, when it appears, is very minor and never distracting.


English language audio options are supplied in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The 5.1 mix could have been a little more aggressive in some spots but otherwise things sound nice here. Dialogue is good, the score and the sound effects are mixed in nicely, and there are no problems with hiss or distortion to complain about.

Synapse has carried over all of the extras from the Elite release starting with the full-length commentary from the writer, producer, and lead actress. It's not going to blow your socks off with fact filled information or anything like that but it's an enjoyable track none the less and it's fun to listen to some of the trials and tribulations that these guys went through during the filming process.

Next up are four short featurettes related to the film. The first one is David Gale At The Tokyo Fantastic Film Festival which is a nice segment of footage of the late actor during his Japanese appearance a few years before he passed. Segment number two is some footage recorded during a Publicity Photo Shoot. It's an enjoyable, albeit brief, look at one of the ways that the movie was promoted. Segment three is entitled Doug Beswick's Creature Shop and is the most interesting of the four pieces. It gives us a behind the scenes look at the men who made the monster suits used in the movie. The final segment is the David Gale Audition footage which is another short snippet in which we see Gale trying out for his role as Carter Brown.

Aside from those main extras, there's a trailer for the feature and a few other Synapse releases on the disc in addition to a sizeable photo gallery, a few filmographies, menus and chapter selection.

The Final Word:

Syngenor is a pretty goofy movie. David Gale's scenery chewing make it worth a look for genre fans who can get away with not taking their movies so seriously. As ridiculous as the film is, however, Synapse has done a fine job on this release, carrying over all of the supplements from the last disc and keeping this odd little film in print and with a super spiffy transfer to boot!