“Synchronic” revolves around an interesting question. What if a drug that seems to warp reality actually warps reality?

(I presume the idea was prompted by a Joe Rogan episode where the podcaster pontificated on the nature of psychedelic drugs like ayahuasca or DMT.)

In the film, New Orleans EMTs Steve and Dennis observe an uptick in strange deaths caused by a drug called Synchronic. When Dennis’s daughter goes missing, Steve takes the drug (for reasons that make sense) and realizes that it sends you back in time. After ingesting the drug on his couch, he goes back to that very spot during the ice age. (I looked this up, and New Orleans during the ice age did not look as it was presented in the film, which is to say very icy.)

Why is this? There’s some hand-waving about how time is an illusion. I’m interested in this topic, and the explanation isn’t total nonsense, but it stretches credulity. There are some references to the pineal gland, which was the magic part of the brain in the Stuart Gordon horror classic, “From Beyond.” In that film, stimulating the gland allowed people to see beyond reality’s curtain. (René Descartes famously called the pineal gland the “seat of the soul”.)

Steve soon realizes that where he takes the drugs controls when he goes back to. Unfortunately, he has a limited supply, so he can’t mess up in his search for Dennis’s daughter.

I find the whole premise more exciting while writing about it than I did while watching it. Somehow, it fell flat in this execution.

The problem with time travel movies is they almost always trip over their own logic. At one point, Steve travels back to a moment in the past. Then he travels back to that same location, and yet, he doesn’t see himself. 

There was an interesting “look” to the film, which concentrated on muted colors, a bit like what David Fincher does. 

One interesting side note: “Synchronic” is connected to other films by the same directors, resulting in a loose shared universe of stories. I may be intrigued enough to watch some of the other movies which are “Resolution,” “The Endless,” and “Something in the Dirt.” (Wait—a sudden memory jolt tells me I saw “The Endless” and thought it was stupid.)

For a better what is reality? film, I would recommend “Stay” which I reviewed earlier.