Any movie that has Blumhouse involved is always going to get my attention. Blumhouse has already tackled the rogue AI thing with M3gan and now they are back at it with Afraid. Although, this time it is not an actual robot with AI, but an AI assistant like Alexa, but you better not let this AI let you hear her call you that!
How to Download Afraid
Afraid was released on August 30, 2024. You can expect to be able to download or stream the film from a digital platform such Netflix or Apple TV 45 days from this date. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the current availability.
The Movie Review
I watched this at a very interesting time as I just watched the Megan Fox led Subservience about a week before I saw this and I thought that was fantastic. To be fair, that does have more in common with M3gan than it does AI. However, I do think that AI gone bad is going to be a trend that we see in sci-fi and horror movies over the next few years. Granted, we have had this dating all the way back to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it feels much more relevant today.
The Story of Afraid: A Family’s Encounter with AI
Afraid is the story of a family that consists of dad Curtis, mom Meridith, teenage daughter Iris, and their younger boys, Preston and Cal. Curtis works in marketing and he gets the chance to work on a new AI product called AIA. It is decided that the best way for Curtis to get to know this product is to take it home and test it for himself.
The Perfect AI Assistant, or Something More?
At first (as is always the case in movies like this) AIA is awesome. AIA helps the kids with school work and social issues, helping Iris deal with a nasty leaked nude picture of herself for example. She helps Meridith in a very personal way, being almost like a friend who listens to her about her career and the grief that she still has for her late father.
Curtis though is a bit different. Curtis starts to ask some pretty interesting questions about AIA and it leads him down a very dangerous rabbit hole where he finds out that this AI is way more advanced than he could have imagined. No spoilers here, but a bunch of weird stuff starts to happen and Curtis starts to worry that his family is in some serious danger from AIA.
A Slow-Burn Thriller with Unsettling AI Elements
I will say that Afraid is a bit of a slow burn, this is most certainly not a blood and guts, lots of jumps cares kind of Blumhouse movie. However, there was something here that kept me hooked, a kind of unsettling feeling about this AI, especially when her “helpers” showed up. This was one of the most interesting things I have seen in a movie about AI and my mind was racing in regards to whether these were people or some kind of advanced AI robot that AIA had created.
AIA: The Perfectly Imperfect Helper
One thing that this movie did really well with its AI character was that AIA was actually making the family’s life better, granted she was like a psycho obsessive friend, however, she was helping. The movie ends in a very interesting way and I would not be against them making a sequel to this so we can find out just how far AIA has spread her digital wings. If you like Blumhouse movies and stuff about bad AI, this is well worth giving a chance.
