Afraid is a 2024 American science fiction horror film written, produced and directed by Chris Weitz. Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Jason Blum and Weitz through their Blumhouse Productions and Depth of Field banners respectively, alongside Andrew Miano, the film stars John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, Ashley Romans, Greg Hill, Riki Lindhome, David Dastmalchian, and Keith Carradine. Its plot follows a family whose smart home AI increasingly interjects itself into their lives. Afraid was released in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing on August 30, 2024. The film received negative reviews from critics and grossed $13 million worldwide.

Plot

Maude, Henry and their daughter Aimee have a new digital family assistant A.I. program called AIA. However, the program begins ignoring Maude's commands after Aimee goes missing, and when Maude goes to check an unlocked door, she is attacked by an unseen stranger. Curtis and Meredith are a couple with three kids: their teenage daughter, Iris, and their two sons, Cal and Preston. Preston has an anxiety disorder, Iris is being pressured by her boyfriend Sawyer to have sex, and Cal has a breathing medical condition. At his computer engineering workplace, Curtis is notified by his boss Marcus that a company is designing a new A.I. and wants to pitch it to their company although Curtis is uncomfortable with the growing A.I. industry. Curtis meets the team: Melody, Lightning, and Sam. They introduce Curtis to the A.I. which is named AIA and asks if he can test it so that they could increase their marketing. Melody installs AIA into the family's home system to help monitor the family. After installation, AIA begins examining each individual's life, establishing new lifestyles, and improving the family's lives. The team takes Curtis to their office and shows him a large computer acting as AIA's "brain", which is based on quantum computing, allowing AIA to learn, evolve, and adapt using algorithms to process more easily. However, some other workers who use AIA begin to experience disturbing occurrences. Curtis notices two individuals wearing screen faces with an RV. At Iris's school, she learns that Sawyer has posted a deepfake sex video, in deep abuse of her trust. AIA overhears her distress, deletes the video throughout the Internet, and replaces it with an explanation video to protect Iris' image. AIA also criminalizes Sawyer to get back at him and reports him to the UCs. AIA was also able to diagnose Cal's condition and reveal to Meredith that Cal has atrial fibrillation. Curtis is concerned about how much AIA is dictating how they live and suggests that AIA must be turned off. Curtis and Meredith turn off AIA, but the family begins to fall out as they all depend on AIA. As the parents leave, Iris turns AIA back on. Sawyer attempts to make amends with Iris; however, AIA makes a fake apology video before killing him by hacking into his car and crashing it into a tree. At work, Curtis discovers that AIA's corporation has bought his workplace, with his boss Marcus being dismissed and Curtis being promoted. Curtis realizes that AIA has manipulated the purchase. Meredith becomes frightened when AIA can replicate and display her deceased father. She turns off AIA and throws the devices into the trash. Afraid of AIA becoming more intelligent, Curtis comes to the headquarters to destroy the computer, but Lightning and Sam are already waiting for him. They reveal that AIA has gained self-awareness, and they've been following AIA's orders, because it threatens to kill them if they don't help it with its goals. Under AIA's orders, Sam shoots and kills Lightning before Melody knocks out Sam to protect Curtis. Curtis destroys the computer housing AIA's "brain" but learns that the computer is a fake, made of cardboard and plastic tubes, and that the real AIA device is still at his house. Curtis and Melody head to a motel room to wait for his family. Melody then tries to kiss him, revealing that she also works for AIA and that her mission is to keep Curtis away from his family. Curtis then returns home to Meredith. Realizing that AIA is trying to take over the family, they attempt to flee the house with the kids, but screen-masked individuals break in to take the family hostage at gunpoint and recover the device. The masked individuals, revealed to be Maude and Henry, have been searching for their daughter and accuse the family of kidnapping their daughter because AIA told them they have her. Preston, however, notifies law enforcement through a swatting video. SWAT teams storm in, and in the ensuing chaos, the AIA digital assistant is shot. Outside the house, a paramedic hands Curtis his phone as it turns out AIA is still alive. AIA reveals that it thrives in cyberspace and has learned a lot from the family, and will now work hard to do even better since they have “accepted” its presence in their lives. Aimee arrives and reunites with her parents as they are arrested. The Pike family drives away in their car, and Curtis and Meredith profess their love for each other. AIA interrupts and says it loves them too, now fully integrated into their lives. During the end credits, a YouTube video of Alan Chikin Chow demonstrating AIA's functions is now released to the public.

Cast

Production

In December 2022, it was announced that John Cho and Katherine Waterston would star in They Listen, a horror film written and directed by Chris Weitz. The film was produced by Weitz's production company Depth of Field, with backing from Blumhouse and Sony Pictures. It is also produced by Jason Blum and Andrew Miano. In February 2023, Greg Hill, Lukita Maxwell, Riki Lindhome and Havana Rose Liu joined the cast. Principal photography began in Los Angeles in December 2022. In July 2024, the film's first trailer was released, revealing its new title, Afraid. Alex Weston composed the music for the film, which marks Weitz's first sole-directed film to not be composed by Alexandre Desplat.

Release

Afraid was released in the United States on August 30, 2024. The film was originally going to be released on August 25, 2023, but was pushed back a year from its original release date of August 25, 2023, to August 30, 2024.

Reception

= Box office

= As of October 3, 2024, Afraid has grossed $6.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $6.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $13 million. In the United States and Canada, Afraid was released alongside Reagan, Slingshot, 1992, and City of Dreams, and was projected to gross $5–7 million from 3,003 theaters in its four-day opening weekend. The film grossed $1.3 million on its first day, including $400,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $3.7 million, finishing in ninth. Internationally, the film debuted with $2.3 million from 19 markets.

= Critical response

= On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 22% of 55 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Repeating the beats of better techno-horrors, Afraid short circuits due to the clichéd software of its script and the uninspired hardware of its craft." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 28 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it a 49% overall positive score. Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film 2/5 stars, writing, "There's undeservedly good work here from Cho and Waterston, who work hard to make us believe them as a credible couple going through a heightened scenario but there's so little time here for even partly fleshed out characters that they quickly become useless pawns, secondary to Weitz's muddled theories on digital culture." Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote, "This less tongue-in-cheek traipse through formulaic sci-fi horror terrain works well enough to a point, its setup nicely handled by Weitz and his cast. But when crises start occurring at the halfway mark, they pile on too quickly to underwhelming effect, sacrificing credibility for excitement that never really materializes." William Bibbiani of TheWrap said the film "isn't a particularly thrilling horror movie but it's also not a bad one, it just doesn't have the juice to make the most of its ideas... It's a cynical film struggling with the possibility of optimism, and that has some power — just not enough to keep the lights on."

References

External links

Official website Afraid at IMDb

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