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Cast: Tiffany Shepis, Louis Mandylor, Patti Tindall, Ed Lauter, Scott Anthony Leet
A beautiful young stem-cell researcher, Elizabeth Barnes, joins a secret research group attempting to develop a stem-cell based universal healing serum. Despite opposition from the project leaders she quickly develops a serum that can bring the dead back to life - but with horrific results. When one of the project's security guards is murdered and then re-animated, Barnes and her team must contend with a man, who at first, is like a child but quickly becomes something much, much more.
There's been many adaptations done by others since the original Frankenstein film came out all those years ago but this is one and takes the original idea and puts a modern spin to it and the results are wonderful. As the film opens you see a woman running down hallways of a research lab and a shadowy figure chasing her, just as the person breaks down the door to an office the woman ran in to the scene cuts to present day. That woman is Elizabeth Barnes, a stem-cell research scientist that takes a job at a local facility looking to make a difference in people's lives buy helping to develop a healing serum for those who are terminally ill. Elizabeth like all the others working at the facility also has personal reasons for joining something that is illegal and could cost them all their careers or worse. What starts off as an experiment to save lives quickly turns into something much bigger and more dangerous than any of them could have ever imagined. To go into too much detail about the story would only spoil it for those waiting to see it so what is written above should be all you need to know. The film is a perfect blend of science fiction and horror but the film's main strength is in it's story-telling and it's character development. The story is broken down into what they call subjects which act as chapters to the story that Elizabeth is telling the FBI, it's a smart and clever story that draws the viewer in and it never lets go till the very end. The characters are also well-written, these are all people you care about in one way or another and that's something you don't see very often in this genre.
Director, Sean Tretta did a terrific job taking the Mary Shelly story and creating his own unique film, he also did a great job at selecting his cast here. Everyone in the film including, Louis Mandylor, Patti Tindall, Ed Lauter and Scott Anthony Leet it a great job but the stand-out performance came from Tiffany Shepis who plays Elizabeth, Tiffany is known as one of the leading "Scream Queens" but let me tell this woman can act as good as she looks and she gives a fantastic performance here. "The Frankenstein Syndrome" is the complete package as far as the genre goes, it uses it's limited settings very well and combined with the lightning and the score it creates just the right atmosphere. The cast is terrific and the story is scary, thought-provoking and edge of your seat tense. when you have these elements all wrapped up into one you get one of the better horror films to come out in some time. If you're a fan of the genre this is one film you should not miss. This is easily Director, Sean Tretta's best work to date and I look forward to seeing what he does next. The cast again did a wonderful job and I too look forward to seeing them all again soon. The DVD comes with Special Features that include:
Audio Commentary with the Director and actress Tiffany Sheppis
Alternate openings with optional commentary, alternate and deleted scenes with optional commentary, and trailers.
I loved the the violence in the film was used only to enhance the story instead of being it, there's a great story here filled with realistic characters which is something you rarely see so I highly recommend picking this up.
Released by MTI Home Video
**** Out Of *****