Scared to Death

A bio-engineered Syngenor stalks Los Angeles, emerging at night to drain human spinal fluid. The police struggle to get eyewitnesses or fingerprints, and the media ridicules the investigation while the killer's brutal feats attract attention. The city lives in fear as the creature slips between sewers and the streets.

Former detective turned novelist Ted Londergan is repeatedly pressed by Detective Lou Capell to look at the case, but he refuses. He is more interested in courting Jennifer and in his own projects, keeping distance from the police investigation.

Ted accidentally backs into Jennifer's car, sparking a reluctant courtship. Although she resists his rude, eccentric charm at first, she is eventually drawn to his persistence and they have sex on their first date.

Jennifer is attacked and left in a coma, shattering Ted's initial distance. Seeing her condition provokes a change of heart in him and a renewed resolve to solve the mystery.

Sherry Carpenter informs Ted that Jennifer's spinal fluid may have been drained by a Syngenor created in a laboratory. She explains that the project's creator, Dr. Ed Amberdine, died and his notes warn that the creature could become dangerous if it reaches maturity.

The police chief publicly closes the case, attributing the killings to a man killed in a shootout with police to end media embarrassment. The action seems cynical and dismissive, erasing the involvement of the real culprit.

Ted and Sherry go to the laboratory to retrieve Amberdine's notes, and they discover a half-dead sewer maintenance worker who hints at a deeper network beneath the city. The discovery connects the case to the Syngenor's hidden infrastructure.

They descend into the sewers and find the Syngenor's lair, where unconscious humans are attached to embryonic Syngenors via feeding tubes. The original Syngenor has reproduced asexually to create its brood.

Ted shoots the embryonic creatures, drawing the adult Syngenor into the scene. The creature proves bulletproof, forcing the pair to retreat as it gives chase.

The Syngenor corners Ted in a metal workshop, so Ted lures it onto a drop forge. Lou arrives and shoots the monster, knocking it toward the dangerous machinery.

Sherry activates the drop forge, crushing the Syngenor and ending its threat. The climactic battle concludes as the creature is destroyed in the fiery machinery.

Jennifer awakens from her coma but is emotionally broken, experiencing hysteria and fearsome hallucinations from the traumatic ordeal.