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Film Review: Afraid

Welcome back to the blog readers. I feel like at this point, I really do not have to tell you the love/hate relationship I have with horror films. This year has been the biggest offender of that philosophy. However, we did get Alien: Romulus (2024), which is my favorite film of the year so far. I am also a big science fiction fan, so finding out this film was a science fiction horror film, I was kind of nervous. Would my fears come to life or would they be quelled? Stick around to find out.


Afraid was written and directed by Chris Weitz. The film stars John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, David Dastmalchian, and Keith Carradine. In the film, a family is selected to test out a new revolutionary artificial intelligence named AIA, but it begins to influence the family and interject itself into their lives.


As I said, I get nervous every time I see a horror film because I really do not know what I am getting in a horror film. Do I get a good one? Is it another Halloween Ends (2022)? By the way, Smile 2 (2024) comes out next month and I cannot wait. But unfortunately, I have to and this film does not help in that regard. Why is that? Because not only is this not a horror film, this is not a good film either. The performances (save for John Cho) were completely phoned in and the story is disingenuous at best.


Speaking of John Cho, I actually found myself invested in his performance in this film as the father of the three children and the true protagonist of this film. I did appreciate what he was trying to say with his performance as a tortured employee who has to score on this Hail Mary that may or may not work for his family. As for the rest of the cast though, I find them just existing and not really having much to say, especially Katherine Waterston and a truthfully and comically out of place David Dastmalchian. There is nothing that they add to the film that makes me more interested in seeing this film again.


The next thing I need to talk about with this film is the biggest problem of the film: it is not a horror film. I hate this idea that a film has the horror trope stamped to it when it really is not a horror film. There is nothing in this film that can remotely be identifiable as terrifying, creepy, or scary. Yeah you may get a jump or two when the AI forces a kid to crash his car and kill himself, but there is not really anything of substance here to identify this film with being part of the horror genre. In fact, this film is pretty much an insult to horror films in general.


Finally, I want to talk about the story of the film. If you know me in real life (how are you if you do?), you would know that I believe society's embracing of artificial intelligence is really troubling because I fear that it will gain enough sentience that it will see us as a threat. I see the Terminator franchise (1984-) as a warning, and not just entertainment. But I do not think this film tells as effective of a story as I think the filmmakers would have liked. I personally would have liked for the AI to be more malevolent than it wound up being, because the real message of the film winds up being embracing the AI almost like it is a cult or something. I think they chickened out of telling a dark and bloody story that honestly would have made this film feel more like a big deal.


In conclusion, Afraid is a messy cautionary tale that features bad writing, bad acting, and a lazy story that leaves much to be desired. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.

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