Synchronic Review

Filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have begun to develop a name for themselves in indie sci-fi and horror circles as a team of filmmakers notable for blending genres in innovative ways and coming up with fascinating high concepts grounded with genuinely empathetic character dramas about the human condition. Their 2017 film The Endless is what put them on the map for me, and while I wasn’t head over heels in love with it there was a lot in it to like, not the least of which was its fascinating mythology and the way in which said mythology was explored. After seeing their follow up film Synchronic as well, I’ve begun to sense a theme with these two. They take frightening concepts and introduce them as horrific mysteries, but over time the horror slowly gives way to exhaustion and then to enlightenment. It’s an interesting subversion of the Lovecraftian horror formula; characters are forced to grapple with concepts and forces far beyond their understanding and control, but instead of going insane with the knowledge they’ve been exposed to, the characters come to realize that to go against these forces is pointless, and that doing so would only be a distraction from the things that really matter in their lives.

Synchronic is a film about the gradual and inevitable passage of time, and about human beings struggling to come to terms with it. The protagonist is a man named Steve Denube, played by Anthony Mackie. He is a New Orleans paramedic along with his friend Dennis Dannelly, played by Jamie Dorman. The two of them go about their lives and work by night, cleaning up after accidents, drug overdoses and other sudden deaths and injury. As they go about their business, they discover signs of a new designer drug named Synchronic, which seems to be causing some of the most grisly accidents and deaths they’ve seen. This first portion of the movie feels like a horror film, as they find increasingly strange and gruesome accident sights as well as people who seem to have been permanently affected by whatever trip the drug has taken them on. There’s a sense of existential dread that pervades the first half of the film, as we see more and more into Steve’s dreary life as he is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and has to come to terms with his looming death.

Steve eventually finds out where the supply of Synchronic is coming from and buys out their stock, attempting to get rid of it without any more casualties. But, after Dennis’s daughter Brianna goes missing after seeming to have experimented with the drug, he discovers a startling truth behind it; the drug essentially displaces those who ingest it in time, allowing them to disappear to other times that the space they are in once occupied for seven minutes – sometimes not even returning at all. To add to that, the way his cancer is affecting his brain means that the drug is uniquely effective on him. For the rest of the film, he begins to experiment with it in order to learn the rules so that he can eventually use it to find Brianna and bring her home.

The film blends multiple genres into one unique experience. It starts off as a horror film raising existential questions about the nature of life, death and time, and gradually turns into a sci-fi mystery, as Steve begins to experiment with the drug and discover the rules. This was my favorite section of the film, as it combines humor with tension and wonder, as he travels back to the ice age, to the swamps of pre-settler Louisiana, and even to the reformation era of America.

Synchronic is also a film that says a lot with very little. It uses its high concepts to explore the nature of time and human life and happiness, ultimately showcasing the growth of characters who discover the true value of the present and of human connection. It should be noted that it does all of this through a very male perspective, but that’s not a bad thing so much as something to note. It also felt very reminiscent of my own experiences with both existential rumination and substance experimentation, and to me it felt like it explored the idea that psychadelic substances can be a tool for introspection and enlightenment, but can also be extremely dangerous if misused or overused.

Overall, I don’t think I liked Synchronic as much as The Endless. I love The Endless’s mythology and concept more than I enjoyed Synchronic’s and I found its central character drama more compelling. The bright cinematography of that film is more refreshing than the grimy, gritty images of Synchronic, and as a trans woman with a history of existential depression I found the combination of existential pondering, horror and male spiritual discovery to be extremely uncomfortable. It’s not that these things are bad, per say, just that for very subjective reasons they put me into a very bad headspace.

Despite that, I think Synchronic will find an audience for itself, and that fans of Benson and Moorhead’s previous work will flock to it. It doesn’t always work, but it’s a creative, original and overall solid time travel thriller with a serious and emotional story behind it.