Panic Fest 2026 Coverage
Ivan review
The rare AI horror movie with a second idea.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Ivan
Directed by Damien Fannon
Written by Damien Fannon and Michael Schwartz
Starring Anna Mirodin, Tanya Clarke, Julia Tomasone, Stephen Bogaert, Jordan Kronis, Sarah Cleveland and Robert Reynolds
Ivan Review
I’d imagine as time goes on we’re going to see a lot more horror movies using AI as the central concept of its story. It’s certainly the biggest boogeyman currently running amok in our minds…and…you know…reality. Of course, it’s hardly a new concept. 2001: A Space Odyssey gave us an AI villain nearly 60 years ago. Recent attempts to do something interesting with the idea have fallen a bit flat by comparison. Or…by any comparison for that matter. Ivan does something a little more interesting with the concept. Then it does something a lot more interesting than that. There are some ups and downs along the way…but, hopefully, Ivan is a sign of innovative things to come within the inevitable subgenre.
Abigail (Anna Mirodin) receives an AI device named Ivan from her absentee father. Abigail’s relationship with her mother (Tanya Clarke) is even worse than the one she has with the father she barely sees. Lisa (Julia Tomasone) is hired as a housekeeper and also to befriend Abigail. Unfortunately, Ivan has other plans for everyone.
Ivan is a bit of a weird movie. There are domestic troubles and evil AI and a housekeeper subplot that, for a while, seems to be going nowhere. But the movie eventually starts piecing everything together in ways that are worth the wait. This isn’t just a simple “evil AI threatens everyone around it” story. At least…it ultimately isn’t. It’s exactly that for more than a little while.
There are some heavy sci-fi ideas at play here. Another example of how the movie isn’t simply about a destructive AI. In fact, this AI is very personal. While Abigail’s father briefly reenters the scene at the beginning of Ivan…it’s his consciousness that the AI is made of. Everything Abigail’s mother fears about her ex is now not only in their home…it’s in control. He wreaks havoc on everyone around it…all while Abigail defends and grows closer to it. Now…there’s the obvious elephant in the room about a little AI speaker that could easily be disposed of. Ivan shows that the AI is able to manipulate the people around it before they can do the obvious thing they should do. It still takes some acceptance on your end to allow for this to continue as long as it does.
I’m at a bit of a loss to explain exactly how the sci-fi elements of the story work…but I found it oddly compelling, nonetheless. Easier to understand is the mother/daughter drama at the heart of the story. This is a completely fractured relationship that was already teetering on the brink before Abigail’s AI daddy stuck its nose into it. What makes it work so well is the assumption that this story is the main point of the movie. While it gets the lion’s share of attention for the first two acts of the story…that’s not exactly the case here.
What’s more difficult to understand through those first two acts is the subplot surrounding Lisa. At first, it appears that the character exists as support for that mother/daughter conflict story. Later, you begin to think that it exists to alter that A plot. Ultimately, it turns into the A plot itself. There’s more going on in Ivan than the AI of a horrible man ruining the lives of his former family. Lisa’s story is the key to where it’s all going. And where it’s going is to an unexpected climax. Even though some starts and stops in Ivan’s early parts…that climax makes the whole of the piece worth watching. Things turn bloody and then they turn into something else altogether. Like any other impending or in effect apocalyptic threat…there’s nothing more dangerous than the people.
Scare Value
Ivan initially feels like it’s going to be a fairly standard and predictable AI horror movie. There are hints that something more interesting is going on…and an entire subplot that feels a little out of place. Those hints and that subplot inevitably overwhelm the standard ideas they take control of. The result is a movie that ends up becoming something unexpected and more worthwhile.
