By Anthony Caruso
Wow! Blumhouse has had quite the streak this year! Three films released in 2024 - Night Swim, Imaginary, and now AfrAId - and all three have been complete duds. It's a shame considering the fact that Blumhouse used to be a huge powerhouse in the horror space. Now, however, when their company logo pops up, I always end up giving an involuntary shudder and expecting the worst.
The basic premise of AfrAId is promising enough: a family is chosen to test a new smart home AI called AIA, which ends up become self-aware and dangerously begins to interfere with and manipulate their lives. While it's definitely not an “original” idea, it's normally a solid enough idea that it usually spawns entertaining films. Not AfrAId, however. Despite the kernels of an interesting story about the dangers of artificial intelligence that are buried within Chris Weitz's muddled screenplay, and despite some interesting setup, AfrAId never takes off or lives up to the promise of its premise's potential. Especially not when it comes to its story, its characters, or its direction. Indeed, Chris Weitz - who also directed this film - ends up delivering to audiences what amounts to a Lifetime Original Movie. He tries to nicely gift wrap the dangers of AI in a story about a struggling, if loving, family. Not only does it look cheap, as though it has the budget of a made-for-TV movie, but it's also just boring on top of being bad. There never appear to be any real stakes, nor do you care enough about the film's characters to actually give a damn about what happens to them!
The cast of this movie is trying their best, and is actually quite charming, but they're never quite able to elevate the material they're given. They are unable to deliver memorable enough performances where I could say that the acting was good at the very least. That's a shame, because avid filmgoers will know that this cast is comprised of very good actors! John Chu has really come into his own over the past few years, demonstrating that he's more than just a go-to for stoner comedies but is somebody that’s actually capable of delivering true dramatics. Katherine Waterston is underrated and undervalued in a lot of ways, mainly due to the material she's been given in recent years like the bland Harry Potter spinoff films, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Unfortunately, the two, who play husband and wife here, have next to zero chemistry, and their characters seem intent on making the dumbest decisions possible at every turn. Meanwhile, after a star-making leading man performance in Late Night With the Devil, it was absolutely jarring to see David Datsmalchian in such a one-note supporting role as one of the supposed creators of the villainous AI. Speaking of AIA, though, the strongest performer in this film is actually Havana Rose Liu who not only voices her to perfection, but plays Melody - the flirty and mysterious "advance employee" at the tech company that invented her.
Between the cast, which seems to be simultaneously bored with the material while trying their best, and Weitz's uninspired direction and a story, AfrAId is a movie that is made of a bunch of disparate, jarring components that never coalesces into a coherent or satisfying whole. It's also a movie that, at an extremely short eighty-four minutes including credits, feels far longer than it actually is. And while the ending is interesting, and will leave you with a squeamish feeling in the pit of your stomach due to its real world implications, it's not earned at any point over the course of the entire film leading up to it.
In a lot of ways, this was Blumhouse trying to remake their very successful film, "M3GAN", while discarding everything that made that movie work - including its iconic AI doll - and doubling down and expanding upon its flaws. And though "AfrAId" isn't the worst film of the year - it's no "Borderlands", "The Crow", "Madame Web", or even "Night Swim" - it comes pretty damn close to being it. There's nothing salvageable about this movie, and it's not even interesting or fun enough in a "so bad it's good" type of way; it's just bad and boring, which is an even worse sin. Even for fellow A-List members, I wouldn't recommend rushing to see this one, nor would I recommend watching this one when it hits streaming. It's just not worth your time, and is merely another swing and a miss for a once great horror production company.
