AfrAId review
Asking if AI wrote this would be a lazy joke that I’m sure others have made. But…seriously, did AI write this?
New movies will not contain spoilers.
AfrAId
Directed by Chris Weitz
Written by Chris Weitz
Starring John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Lu, Lukita Maxwell, David Dastmalchian, David Carradine and Riki Lindhome
AfrAId Review
We need to talk about Blumhouse. Specifically, what Blumhouse has been putting into theaters for the last two years. Halloween Ends has more than its share of issues…but it does, at least, try some things. They don’t work…but it would soon become apparent that it might be the last time the production company took any risks whatsoever. Next up we had M3GAN. A perfectly safe horror movie that shied away from anything that might stop those hands from reaching into the popcorn bucket. The movie was pretty good. The last time we’ll be using those words to describe a Blumhouse theatrical release. Here we go, folks. It’s going to get brutal.
The as quickly produced as it is unmemorable Insidious: The Red Door was up next. This will be the last time you hear the word “watchable” attached to a Blumhouse theatrical release in this review. David Gordon Green came back to prove any creative success in his Halloween trilogy was a total fluke by directing an abysmal legacy sequel…The Exorcist: Believer. Five Nights at Freddy’s AKA the movie that made murderous animatronic animals as boring as the custody battle the movie wants to focus on instead. Here’s the rub on all of this. M3GAN, Insidious: The Red Door, The Exorcist: Believer and Five Nights at Freddy’s were all big successes at the box office. Which means we weren’t going to slow down this gravy train of mass appeal boredom.
2024 has seen a trio of new Blumhouse films hit theaters nationwide. Night Swim kicked off the year by continuing the streak of incredibly bad movies. Imaginary made sure it upheld the low bar of its predecessors in every way. Now we have AfrAId. A movie that just goes ahead and eliminates horror from the equation altogether. Outside of the opening scene…AfrAId doesn’t even attempt to be scary…or thrilling…or interesting…of fun. Part technology rant by someone who read a headline on reddit…part lessons in bad parenting…all bad.
Well…not all. Like many Blumhouse releases, a fine cast is assembled to try and make a bad movie work. John Cho is very good here…against a lot of odds. Katherine Waterston is too. They can’t keep the movie’s head above water…but they don’t add to the troubles. David Dastmalchian is completely wasted in a small part. Hard to believe he gave one of the best performances in horror this year (Late Night with the Devil) only to be used like this. Riki Lindhome gets to be in the best part of the movie (the horror opening) and carries it well.
The cast is the end of positive talks about AfrAId. This is a mind-numbingly boring movie. It thinks it has a lot to say about the dangers of technology. It can’t even figure out how to make them remotely interesting. You are in no danger of learning anything about AI that you haven’t already found out on the platform formerly known as Twitter. That’s the level of depth that AfrAId is playing with.
Even the antagonist AI isn’t a remotely original idea. We’ve seen the “smart home turns on its owners” story done repeatedly. This AI can infiltrate every aspect of your life. It can control your phone, voice, car…anything with a CPU. That makes it sound far more interesting than it is. Mostly, the AI spends the movie gaining the trust of people who are going to turn on it the moment they realize it means them harm. I guess the characters aren’t totally stupid at least.
There isn’t much else left to say about the latest Blumhouse release. It’s what you probably guessed it was when you saw the milquetoast trailer. The only surprise is that it manages to be less effective than you even imagined. We try to highlight the positives in the movies we review. Aside from the efforts of the cast…there simply isn’t anything worth highlighting.
AfrAId is what happens when you want to put a family friendly horror movie in theaters and try to triple your small budget. It takes no risks, houses no frights and has nothing original to say. A glossy competent production with nothing inside of it. That’s become the Blumhouse pattern. Good looking, well cast, thematically empty. AfrAId isn’t the first of their releases in the last two years to lack scares…but it is the first one that doesn’t bother to try.
Skip AfrAId. It’s that simple. Before you mourn the decline of a once powerful horror production company consider a couple of things. In a few weeks the English remake of Speak No Evil hits theaters. You may have caught a trailer or two. The original version was a great movie that takes risks and has a strong story. Two things we haven’t seen in a Blumhouse theatrical release in some time. Assuming they don’t go out of their way to water it down and Americanize the ending…things almost have to turn around for them from a creative standpoint. Yes…they had to remake a two-year-old movie to achieve that. At this point we’ll take anything.
Secondly, Blumhouse is still producing quality movies. They just aren’t the ones they send to theaters for mass consumption. In the same two year span the company has made Totally Killer, Run Sweetheart Run and Nanny for Amazon, Sick for Peacock and The Passenger, Unseen and There’s Something Wrong with the Children on VOD. They’re still a capable movie house. If you want to watch a quality release from them…make sure you stay home to see it.
Scare Value
What are we doing here? Whoever AfrAId is meant for…it isn’t horror fans. What’s worse is that it turns out to be one of those movies that thinks it has something to say about the future of technology…but it doesn’t. Nothing interesting. Nothing remotely thoughtful. A good cast is wasted. Such is the modern Blumhouse way.
1.5/5
AfrAId Link
In theaters – Fandango
