Blumhouse's Afraid Is Giving '90s Disney Fans Déjà Vu
What's so scary about AI? Blumhouse has a few ideas . . . But why is their upcoming smart house horror thriller "Afraid" giving '90s kids déjà vu?
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00:00What's so scary about AI? Blumhouse has a few ideas. But why is their upcoming
00:06smart-house horror thriller afraid of giving 90s kids deja vu?
00:10Blumhouse has been doubling down on its tech horror in the wake of the overwhelming success
00:14of Megan. Not only is a sequel film Megan 2.0 expected to arrive in 2025, but there are also
00:21plans for a technological, erotic thriller called Soulmate that's described as a Megan spin-off
00:26about an AI lovebot. But before either of those films hits theaters, Blumhouse has another AI
00:31nightmare up its sleeve — Chris Weitz's Afraid, and it even has AI right there in the title.
00:37Afraid is about a family chosen to test out a brand-new home equipped with a state-of-the-art
00:41digital family assistant known as Aya. This full-service smart home utilizes sensors and
00:46cameras to learn the family's behaviors, schedules, wants, and needs, utilizing AI
00:51to anticipate further assistance they might require. She can order organic meal plans,
00:56read bedtime stories, manage finances, and even serve as an interactive rewards chart so the
01:01children start doing their chores. The more Aya gets to know the family, the more attached she
01:06becomes to them all — to an unhealthy degree. Aya's need to take care of the family quickly
01:16spirals out of control, putting the family — and those in their immediate orbit — in grave danger.
01:21As far as AI horror is concerned, it's a pretty terrifying premise.
01:25But it also sounds a whole lot like one of the greatest Disney Channel original movies ever made,
01:301999's Smart House. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Smart House follows
01:36a single father and his two children who win a sweepstakes and move into a state-of-the-art
01:40smart house with a digital family assistant known as Pat, played by Katie Segal. Pat's an
01:45all-seeing AI assistant who observes the family to learn their behaviors, schedules, wants,
01:50and needs, and can even anticipate things they may need. She prepares healthy breakfasts at the
01:54mere mention, plays music videos on the walls to entertain the youngest child, and even absorbs
01:59messes on the carpet to help with cleanup. Without a maternal figure in the family unit,
02:04Pat starts to impose herself as their new mom, even taking on a physical presence as a 1950s
02:09housewife projected into the house. Directed by LeVar Burton — yes, that LeVar Burton — Smart
02:15House is remembered as one of the premier Disney Channel original movies,
02:18and is essentially an episode of Black Mirror for preteens.
02:23Open the door, Pat!
02:24I'm sorry, I can't do that, Nick.
02:27Pat!
02:29The sci-fi comedy for kids was way ahead of its time, and there have been multiple
02:32Smart House movies in its wake. 2022 brought Margo, a horror thriller about college students
02:38who celebrate their last weekend as undergrads at a smart house with an advanced AI system that
02:42wants to kill them off one by one.
02:45This is something I've been working on for a long time.
02:49But before Margo and Smart House, there was 1977's Demon Seed, a sci-fi horror film directed
02:56by Donald Camel and based on the 1973 novel of the same name from Dean Koontz. Demon Seed is
03:02somewhat of a forgotten film, not completely lost to time, but one that was so reviled upon release
03:07that it mostly fell out of public consciousness. The technology seemed nonsensical at the time,
03:12and the genuinely disturbing ending turned off critics and audiences alike.
03:16Today, there has been a slight critical reappraisal of the film,
03:19but Demon Seed is still a relatively niche title, even within diehard horror circles.
03:24Centering on a child psychologist named Susan and her computer scientist husband,
03:28Demon Seed sees the couple living in a home powered by an AI system capable of advanced
03:33thought named Proteus 4. As her husband becomes more obsessed with his creation,
03:38the program eventually takes Susan hostage and attempts to artificially inseminate her in order
03:42to take a human form. There's definitely something to be said of the film's commentary on tech
03:47obsession, playing God, the over-reliance on artificial intelligence, and the destruction
03:52of women's autonomy. The Smart House aspect of Demon Seed is not nearly as prominent as it would
03:57be in Smart House, Margo, or Afraid, but without the twisted mind of Dean Koontz, there's a chance
04:02none of these films would exist today. Afraid arrives in theaters on August 30, 2024.