Torrey Lawrence, Jessie T. Usher and Taye Diggs are among the cast of Syndetic, a psychological sci-fi thriller that recently wrapped production in Los Angeles. The film marks the directorial debut of Blake Linder.
Written by Jayme LaForest, the film centers on Richard Thompson (Lawrence), a former Marine and network administrator whose unemployment, addiction and estrangement from his two sons leave him vulnerable to an unusual offer from Neural Hive. There, the disarmingly genial Dr. Carnegie, played by Brett Gelman, recruits Richard into an experimental program that uses human brains as individual nodes within a distributed computing network designed to harness the mind’s capacity for prediction and pattern recognition.
As Richard begins experiencing violent images and unfamiliar memories that undermine his sense of identity and reality, he becomes increasingly consumed by Kylie O’Reilly, played by Brooke Anne Smith, a ubiquitous motivational media personality whose relentless optimism takes on a more invasive and unsettling significance. Usher and Diggs play Detectives Clearwater and Lane, investigators attempting to reconstruct the truth from Richard’s fragmented account while determining whether his apparent delusions may point to something real.
Through Richard’s unraveling perspective, the film explores the commodification of human experience, economic desperation and the increasingly unstable boundary between consciousness and technology.
“I’ve always been drawn to stories that leave audiences asking difficult questions, and Syndetic does exactly that,” said Linder. “I wanted to blend grounded suspense with psychological horror to explore where our relationship with technology could lead if we stop questioning the systems we choose to trust.”
LaForest produces through Fall Risk Entertainment alongside Jason Short through Short Films and Linder Productions.