Companion review: this comedy horror on the perils of AI might be blunt, but it’s a bloody hoot
Companion review: this comedy horror on the perils of AI might be blunt, but it’s a bloody hoot
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Love, death, robots and a dastardly criminal plan that couldn’t possibly fail (read: definitely will go appallingly wrong)… They’re all here in this punchy (we’re talking the face-smashing type), snappy (the neck-crunching variety) near-future horror dripping with treacle-black comedy.
Just as Trump and the tech uber-barons pledge half a trillion dollars for AI innovation, debut writer-director Drew Hancock gives us a timely, decidedly unsubtle, but wildly entertaining take on the rogue cyborg genre. Now, just the mention of “robots” and “rogue” could be something of a spoiler, but this film (and its trailer) isn’t shy about giving some of its game away. Hell, even as we open with an intentionally generic meetcute between Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) over a tray of spilled supermarket oranges, Iris’s voiceover lets us know she’s gonna kill Josh.
We then join heavily loved-up Iris and Josh on the way to a weekend at the remote country home (you know, isolated enough for really crazy shit to happen) of sleazy edgelord CEO Sergey (Rupert Friend, all gold medallions, moustache and mullet). Kat (Megan Suri), Sergey’s trophy, paid-for “accessory” girlfriend is there too, as are a gay couple (Harvey Guillén and Lukas Gage) who seem to be even more sweetly in love than Iris and Josh.
It's all scallops and champagne on the veranda, but there’s something nigglingly not quite right. Iris, for instance, just seems a little disingenuous, and the relationships are slightly too saccharine to be true. And then… there’s an awkward sexual incident by the lake… before Iris rolls back to the house minutes later looking like she’s just clambered out of an abattoir and, BANG!, we’re off and running.
