Embryo (1976)

Strong and Moving!

Please don't spend money on this.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

EMBRYO is a low-key science fiction film of 1976, notable for starring a middle-aged Rock Hudson in the protagonist role of a misguided scientist who invents an incredible growth hormone that can transform an embryo into an adult being in the space of a week. Hudson begins the film by experimenting on his own dog before he manages to create a young woman in his own laboratory, but his experiment has typically unforeseen circumstances.There are obvious parallels to the FRANKENSTEIN story in this film, but otherwise it's very much a low budget production of the 1970s. Most of it takes place in the dark and there are few if any effects or the usual sci-fi trappings. This means that the actors have to work a lot harder in order to convince us of their situation, and thankfully they're up to it. Hudson is a solid presence who pivots the whole picture, but the real treat is Barbara Carrera who is a convincingly otherworldly Victoria. Roddy McDowall has an amusing cameo too. Like COMA, EMBRYO is a thinking person's science fiction thriller in which ethics are a primary concern, and thus it builds to a suitably horrific - and fitting - climax.

Horribly disappointing movie. Had a fantastic poster featuring nude Barbara Carrera (supposedly?) which is, by my standards, a collector's item today like few others. The only fun about this movie is that poster. I ordered the DVD and hoped the poster would be the box cover, but no, only a weak, weak, weak rendition of the original image as big as an average-sized postage stamp. The movie is hugely disappointing... Given the theme, From Embryo to Woman in 4 1/2 Weeks, there is a hell of a lot that could have been done with it. Imagine cultivating your own dreamgirl down in the laboratory, only for it to go wrong in a most disastrous way. Movie needs a remake, with particular focus on the anguish of premature aging, especially since the object of desire comes into the world as a fresh flower that is as doomed as just exactly that. It is however my experience that the movies of Ms. Carrera are invariably disappointing because, it seems to me, she's not exactly the star material she appeared to be at the time. Long, long hair a la Jane Seymour got her on my radar back in the mid- Seventies, but alas! long, long hair alone a fine actress doth not make.The poster is fun though, and today I saw the Net version of the one cutting out the off- putting male presence. To this day, when I see girls curled up so innocently, vulnerably, in the fetal position, I think of this poster. Nice legs, and especially the bare feet added that total total vulnerability.Had the movie been a tenth of the fun of the poster... but it doesn't have a hundredth.

You would have to be to see any plot or entertainment value in this movie, if your bored and want to waste 140 some minutes turn on a blank TV and stare at it. You will be better off in the long run! After trying to submit I have been informed I need 10 lines so here are 10 lines this movie should be buried by the psycho pincher who is by far the best actor in the movie... here goes: 1. Did Hudson need money that bad? 2. Same question for Diane. 3. Whyyyyyyyyyy did the poor family have to die? 4. MacDowell's acting was phenomenal, really! 5. How much did she get for frog lamp on ebay, it had best cameo. 6. Bonus: no dogs were harmed in the making of this movie, however directors daughters stuffed doggie did not survive. 7. RIP Goldie the gold fish. 8. They sure knew how to party in the 70's. 9. This clearly shows Rock Hudson without Doris Day equals tragic movie consequences! 10. I was seriously considering buying a doberman but now... PASS!

This movie was dark, not moody dark but pitch black, filmed with the lens cap on dark. And creepy. Old guy creates young hottie and gets busy with her creepy. Aside from that, meh. The dog was amazing, the things they got her to do was cool. The first thing we are supposed to notice that there is a bad seed in the "created" creatures is when the Doberman kills a yappie yorkie that got in her face. Large aggressive animals are actually known for being large and aggressive so what's the big deal? The dog actually covering up evidence better than my children when they steal cookies was impressive. And how exactly is there an existing remedy for rapid aging when there is no drug or case of rapid aging? Did he just fill her fulla whatever crap he had laying around, which happens to only be harvested from <6 month old fetuses!? and hope for the best? As an aside, thinking like a 2009 parent, when the weird chick is in the park and a strange child approaches and insists she swing him/her/it, (I couldn't tell), and then the weird chick ends up playing on all the kids' rides having way more fun than the now pack of parentless children she then leads to the beach. Holy Megan's Law Batman! My aforementioned children are fighting behind me now and I think I lost my train of thought. All in all, an odd cinematic thing. Also if the poor actress is traipsing around starkers at least have the decency to turn some overhead lights on. Why was the poor thing there catching her death of cold and we the audience can't see squat.