2025-02-21

It is the perfect time to release this movie. I guess I might have a different perception about it because apart from the unsolicited and intrusive screenshots I saw on Twitter about this movie, nothing prepared me for the twist. I see some who felt robbed of the experience because apparently, the core plot was already revealed during the trailer. Well, you know me. I don't watch trailers of films I know I'll watch.

So, it is impossible to discuss the movie without spoiling the rest of the story and I would suggest to see it without prior knowledge about it except that it's marketed as a horror film and Sophie Thatcher is in it. And while you're at it, also try to watch Heretic (2024). Some good stuff is in there and maybe I'll write about it in the future.

It's basically a spin on the idea of love and robots in the age of AI. Take Alex Garland's Ex_Machina (2014) and Spike Jonze's her (2013) and smash them together to create this sci-fi thriller. I was actually sold that this was just another romantic psychopath slasher movie because of the clips and images I saw and I am glad that it was not.

It did not say anything new but it attempted to tackle the love robot turned murderer trope in a tasteful way. In the midst of the conflict, everyone did the best thing that aligned to their interests. The tech was also consistent to a point that did not broke my immersion and I just love how humans are portrayed in the face of their selfish desperation.

I have held a firm belief that the emergence of LLMs will only feed our own ego. The first hurdle of being a human is to understand ourselves and accept our flaws. Another person or in the movie's case, the presence an Other that is tailored to our own unexamined self is a recipe for disaster. Our existence is meant to be denied and we must stand through the world's insistence to act according to its laws and revolt against it until we have found our true self. Only then are we able to love an Other. Only then are we able to sincerely empathize and gain a human understanding of what it's like to feel shared pain.

It has become a norm for me to always expect that we are here, orchestrating our own demise, unknowingly, as we make ourselves believe that the things that we do for love is the right thing for us. What a shame.

You cannot turn off or shut the Other down whenever it's convenient for you. I love that the film is all about the inability to face the consequences of your own actions. That we always assume that since the future hasn't happened yet, we are free from the chain reaction that our decisions will create.