Movies featuring killer computers are nothing new. From Hall 9000 2001: A space odyssey Unpleasant M3GANcomputers, puppets and robots that become sentient and sinister make for a damn good time at the cinema. It’s also the basis for many of the best science fiction horror films.
Nowadays, however, AI is everywhere, from the Mac I’m writing this article on to the smartphone you’re reading it on, it’s impossible to hide from it. And what happens when there’s a new buzzword or trend in town? Hollywood is coming in droves and doubling down. Enter Scareda movie about an AI that wants to kill you, and the horror movie you probably shouldn’t see this Halloween week.
Scared tells the story of a family whose lives are turned upside down after the father, Curtis, brings AIA, an Alexa-like voice assistant, into their home. To make AIA work, “eyes,” small smart home cameras, are installed throughout the house, which monitor everything the family does and send the information back to the AI assistant. It’s a pretty disturbing vision of the future of the smart assistant, but it’s also incredibly corny. If, like me, you spend most of your time on the Internet, then you have been inundated with AI information in recent years, and as a result Scared feels like AI bingo, trying to fit in as many pop culture buzzwords as possible in just 84 minutes.
AIA can do everything from paying the family’s bills, teaching the children, and even bribing them with points that they can use for rewards in exchange for doing household chores. It’s all a bit ridiculous, but did you expect deepfakes to be as realistic as they are just a few years ago?
Was this written by AI?
Horror films strive for the surreal, right? So criticism Scared because to be unrealistic would be unfair, but when bad writing, a silly plot and poor acting combine with a tired premise it makes the film a chore to watch.
I was about 20 minutes into the movie before I couldn’t help but sigh at every reference thrown into the mediocre script. ChatGPT, Alexa, Minecraft, Cordyceps from The Last of Us, Atrial Fibrillation and even The Emoji Movie appear. Frankly, AfrAId is exhausting, like a group of writers (or an AI) deciding to write a movie just to check the boxes.
You know exactly how this movie goes: AIA infiltrates the house, turns sinister, bribes the kids, and causes chaos – it’s a simple premise, and incredibly boring.
So why am I writing about Scared? I hear you ask. Well, considering that AI horror movies are being produced faster than the next AI image generator, I felt it was my duty to watch this one, so you don’t have to. My favorite quote from AfrAId comes in the form of a sales pitch from the creators of AIA: “We want to understand people and then ask their permission to tell them stories they can believe in and feel part of. This is how you cut through the chatter of the internet and the millions of mouths whispering to you, the millions of eyes watching you. Because that’s what people want, not a product, they want empathy, connection, community.”
This quote is incredibly ironic because the movie completely ignores giving people what they want. AfrAId is a quick cash grab without the thrills you expect from a horror, and even if you’re interested in AI, you should just avoid it completely.
