‘AfrAId’ Review: Virtual Mary Poppins Becomes Vengeful HAL in Standard Blumhouse Thriller
variety.comDennis Harvey Film Critic Though it was hardly the first thriller to portray domesticity imperiled by an artificially intelligent “helper” (you may recall trapped Julie Christie in 1977’s “Demon Seed,” for starters), the runaway success of 2022’s “M3GAN” certainly lent that concept new commercial appeal.
Unsurprisingly, Blumhouse isn’t waiting for next summer’s “M3GAN 2.0” to capitalize on its own success. Writer-director Chris Weitz’s “AfrAId” (recently retitled from the announced “They Listen”) stars John Cho and Katherine Waterston as a married couple whose home is selected to test a new “digital family assistant.” Needless to say, it soon develops a dangerous mind of its own.
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.
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