Film Review: Afraid

You know, I think a film like Afraid is in kind of an interesting position when it comes to the intersection of art and history. Sure, in the current moment, it looks like just another disposable horror film from Blumhouse, and it kind of is just that. But at the same time, it is coming at a very significant point in the history of AI development. Tech companies across the world have embraced it, packaged it, and shipped it in numerous forms, despite the technology being in its relative infancy. Things are moving so fast, people and governments don’t have the full information on how it will affect society as a whole, much less have regulations passed to avoid any issues.

So, as you can imagine, the film Afraid is all about artificial intelligence. We follow Curtis (John Cho), a family man who works at a marketing firm that has recently partnered up with a tech company who wants to test out their new smart home AI, which is referred to as AIA (voiced by Havana Rose Liu, who also plays an employee of the company), and Curtis’ family is chosen as the guinea pig. Everything seems fine at first, with the AIA being very helpful and efficient, but things quickly take a turn when it begins taking actions that go far beyond what is necessary.

So, by all accounts a by-the-numbers cautionary tale about the dangers of artificial intelligence, we’ve seen this before. But there is just enough details here that actually gets into the weeds about many of our current anxieties about this new technology and what is means for our everyday life, both the benefits and the drawbacks. We’re entering uncharted waters after all, and I wonder to myself how this movie, and other films like this, will stand the test of time when we look back many years later after the dust has settled and we have a more firm grasp on the long-term effects of AI and its implementation into everyday life.

Because at this point, it’s not just the same old Terminator jokes about Skynet destroying the world anymore. It’s deep fakes, it’s misinformation campaigns, hindrance of childhood development, media manipulation, things that have real consequences. That is where the film derives most of its tension. The way AIA begins to manipulate the family, take simple requests for assistance way too far, and outright lead some people straight to an early grave. As one can imagine, the film does take a rather silly approach when it comes to fully realizing some of these ideas, especially in terms of just how quick things go off the rails, and the sheer scope of AIA’s power that is later revealed.

For as silly as Afraid does get, having people as wildly overqualified like John Cho and Katherine Waterston does make the proceedings a bit easier to swallow. Writer/director Chris Weitz is a solid journeyman filmmaker, and he constructs the film competently enough to make some sequences relatively effective in the moment, in a very nuts and bolts, meat and potatoes fashion. I think there was potential for a more complex narrative that dived deeper into its ideas, many of which were practically served on a silver platter ripe for the taking and exploring, but it largely served the need for immediate thrills above all else. And I will say, at the very least, the film is short – with a mere hour and 25 minute runtime, and it basically hits the ground running, keeping things tight and forward moving. So, I don’t think the film offers a whole lot, but I do wonder how it will hold up in, let’s just say, 20 years. Will we laugh at how ridiculously paranoid we were about the concerns for AI, or will we see it as a dire warning that we ignored for the sake of minor conveniences? Only time will tell.

Afraid is not playing in theaters.

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