Get the latest gossip

‘AfrAId’ Review: Virtual Mary Poppins Becomes Vengeful HAL in Standard Blumhouse Thriller

Playing on current fears around artificial intelligence, Chris Weitz’s tale of a family imperiled by its virtual assistant plumbs familiar terrain.

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. That thing is AIA, a “next-generation digital assistant” that is a sort of “super-Alexa.” Speaking in the relatable vocal tones of Cumulative employee Melody (Havana Rose Liu), it has the world’s knowledge at its fingertips, and makes short work of figuring out this family’s needs, both practical and psychological. A home-invasion climax falls awkwardly flat, and while the fadeout’s conceptual leap might’ve worked in a more ambitious framework, this literal-minded Blumhouse programmer lacks the satirical bite, metaphorical weight or physical scale to pull it off.

Get the Android app