If you are tired of all the goofy Christmas rom-coms and Harry Potter marathons, a movie with a very different tone just landed on Netflix. This week, the sci-fi horror movie Afraid from writer and director Chris Weitz (About a Boy) made its streaming debut, giving families who prefer to freak out together something to watch over the weekend.
Technically, the title is AFRAID, hinting at the dangerous smart home AI assistant that the movie revolves around. John Cho and Katherine Waterston star Curtis and Meredith, a married couple with a daughter and two sons. Curtis works as a computer engineer, and his boss wants him to test a new home assistant called AIA in his house. Once the system is installed, the AI begins monitoring the family and offering suggestions to improve their lives.
Eventually, AIA begins to overstep some boundaries, at which point Curtis and Meredith decide it’s time to turn the system off. But their nightmare is just beginning.
Just a day after arriving on Netflix, the movie has already crept its way into the top 10. It’s clear that the threat of AI is one that speaks to a wide audience, especially as chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude become more intelligent with each passing week.
At least, that’s my guess for why this movie is on the Netflix top 10 charts, because it’s certainly not the countless glowing reviews. Afraid, which was released in theaters on August 30th, 2024, has a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.1 on IMDb.
“Afraid is a poignant, artistic statement—evidence that humans are just as capable of mediocrity as the machines that will replace us,” said the Observer’s biting review.
