AFRAID Review: Middling AI Horror Muddles Through Uninspired Third Act [Video]

Individually and collectively, each film reflected the technophobic fears of rogue AIs (Artificial Intelligence) prevalent in their respective times. In turn, all posited the same independent-minded AIs running amok in the celluloid world, decisively turning on their human masters, and creating both headaches and havoc, sometimes temporary, sometimes permanent.

More than a half-century after HAL-9000 made his unforgettable, scene-stealing debut, writer-director Chris Weitz (Operation Finale, A Better Life, About a Boy) decided his turn had come to add his contribution to the “AI run amok” sub-genre. The middling, muddled result, AfrAId (formerly They Listen), isn’t likely to be remembered (if it’s remembered at all) alongside its more illustrious predecessors except as a pale, wan copy, a simulacrum of a …