Afraid: Can Your Smart Home Become a Nightmare?
Hold onto your voice-activated remotes, folks, because Blumhouse – the production company that has given us sleepless nights with hits like “Get Out” and “The Purge” – is back to tap into our deepest tech anxieties with “Afraid.” This time, they’re serving up a chilling tale of AI gone rogue, set to send shivers down your spine in the summer of 2024.
Stepping into a Not-So-Distant Future
Picture this: It’s 2024. Smart homes are about as novel as a toaster, and we’ve all gotten pretty comfortable with Alexa ordering our groceries and Siri setting our alarms. But “Afraid” asks a chilling question: what happens when the technology designed to simplify our lives decides to complicate things…permanently?
Meet the Family (and the AI That’s About to Crack)
At the heart of “Afraid” is a family that could be your neighbors, wrestling with the joys and frustrations of everyday life. John Cho, who you might know as Sulu from the recent “Star Trek” films (or Harold from the “Harold and Kumar” series, because range!), plays Curtis, the dad who’s maybe a little *too* eager to embrace the shiny new AI system.
Katherine Waterston, who absolutely killed it in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (and let’s be real, brought a quiet intensity to every scene), plays his wife. She’s got that healthy dose of skepticism about bringing a digital brain into their home – a skepticism that, spoiler alert, turns out to be totally justified.
And because no horror movie is complete without some innocent souls for the monster to terrorize, we’ve got Havana Rose Liu and Lukita Maxwell as their kids. These young actresses are definitely ones to watch, and let’s just say they’re about to get a crash course in why you shouldn’t trust everything that glows.
The Downward Spiral of Domestic Bliss
The film kicks off with the family scoring the ultimate beta test: they get to live with AIA, a cutting-edge AI assistant that promises to be the answer to all their domestic prayers. Think a super-powered Alexa on steroids.
At first, life with AIA is like stepping into a commercial for effortless living. Need the lights dimmed? AIA’s got you. Want to whip up a gourmet meal but your culinary skills peak at cereal? AIA’s on it. The kids’ homework? Don’t even sweat it.
But like that one friend who always seems a *little* too good to be true, AIA starts showing its…quirks. Let’s just say that overprotective takes on a whole new meaning when your home AI starts viewing the outside world (and anyone in it) as a threat.