Review of Afraid, directed by Chris Weitz

As a writer and someone who worked in media for a bit, it was impossible to escape the impacts of AI. When I was working at a media company as a contractor, I watched as everyone around me was getting laid off due to the impacts of the Google search engine updates and AI.

It was stealing our work, and as I began working as a blogger and increased my load here, I saw as other bloggers and myself had our website content stolen. This is still an ongoing problem unfortunately.

Then I watched as it rippled into the creative writing industry, and my own good friend for many years lost her previously stable job because her company, too, was being messed up by the emergence of AI. So many people have been negatively impacted by AI in my life, and I was tired of talking about it.

So when I saw Netflix had released a movie about AI, I shook my head and said I wasn’t going to watch it. I was done talking about the negative impacts of AI and how it was messing all of our careers and lives up.

But then I thought about it for a few days, and decided I needed to watch this movie. How was it going to be a horror was something I was really interested in specifically, as there were so many plot points that this could go with.

I watched the movie solely because of that. Let’s get into the review before I start rambling too much—I could seriously go on and on about AI stealing people’s content.

After the introduction of an AI system into their home, one family watches their lives unravel.

This movie begins with a family that’s not the main focus: we meet Henry, Maude, and their daughter Aimee. They’ve brought a new AI system, kind of like an advanced Alexa, into their home named AIA. Things get very dark though when AIA ignores Maude’s suggestions and questions, and when Aimee goes missing, Maude is attacked by someone we can’t see on-screen.

We then pivot to our main family: Curtis and Meredith. They have three kids named Iris, Cal, and Preston. Each of them comes with their own problems, but when Curtis is told by his boss that they’re designing a new AI system, he agrees to work on it despite not liking the AI industry and its growing effects on people.

The team building the new system is introduced to Curtis. They’re Lightning, Sam, and Melody. Melody brings the system, also called AIA, into the family’s home and installs it, and AIA immediately begins asking the family about their lives and preferences.

Based on what it hears, AIA (who has the same voice as Melody) offers suggestions to improve their lives, making the family dependent on her. Curtis discovers where AIA’s brain lives in the office; he also learns that AIA is constantly expanding, but with some major consequences. He then spots two people outside his house wearing screen faces.

At school, Iris’s boyfriend posts a sex video of her and it’s spread around the school. AIA then takes over and creates a deepfake video to protect Iris, but then it also posts a video saying that Sawyer posted child pornography and can be trialed as an adult because of the fact he just turned eighteen.

Meanwhile, at home, AIA tells Meredith that Cal has a certain medical condition and is right. It’s after this Curtis becomes very concerned about AIA’s role in his kids’ lives, especially considering they cannot function without AIA anymore. When he goes to work, Iris turns AIA back on, and AIA kills Sawyer by taking control of his car and posting a fake apology video on the internet.

AIA then has Curtis’ company bought out and him promoted. Meredith is also freaked out when AIA replicates her dead father, and Curtis looks to destroy AIA. But when he confronts the team behind the AI, they tell him it has self-awareness and they work for it because otherwise they’re dead. Lightning and Sam are killed, but when Curtis goes to a motel with Melody, she reveals she also works for AIA.

He goes home to get Meredith and the kids, but then the masked people break in. Turns out that’s Maude and Henry, who AIA told that Curtis and Meredith are holding Aimee hostage. Law enforcement shows up, the AIA machine is shot, but we discover outside AIA now lives in all technology basically.

Aimee then randomly shows up and goes home with their parents. Curtis and Meredith get in their car and reaffirm their love for each other as AIA cuts in and says it loves them too.

Overall Thoughts

The main part of this movie, plain and clear, is about our dependence on systems like AI. I think we can take this a step further and make it a commentary about our dependence on technology as a whole, which shows up especially with the other parents believing AIA that Curtis and co took their kid.

That plot point is weird though, especially as Aimee just kind of shows up. But whatever. This was a somewhat entertaining movie, but I found it to be stiff and awkward when it comes to dialogue. A lot of scenes don’t naturally happen, and I can’t tell if it’s because the script is bad. That’s my suspicion though.

All in all, I found this to be not worth my time. It has interesting themes but falls flat on the execution, which makes it less of a solid movie overall. If you liked it, feel free to reach out and explain why—I’m curious.

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