AfrAId does not compute.

There’s something profoundly ironic about Blumhouse, of all studios, producing a horror film about the dangers of artificial intelligence. After all, the majority of their output feels like it’s been assembled by an out-of-the-box large language model — a kind of cinematic auto-complete that takes a concept and churns out a screenplay based on the most obvious, predictable plot developments. AfrAId certainly fits that bill. It’s a movie that plays out like it was built by someone who’s heard of AI but has no real understanding of it—or, apparently, the fundamentals of good screenwriting.

The premise? AI gone rogue. The execution? Let’s just say it’s less Ex Machina and more ex-cremental as writer/ director Chris Weitz hits rock bottom with this collection of partially ingested tabloid headlines regurgitated as an incoherent and occasionally laughably stupid attempt at a techno-horror. Never mind artificial intelligence, the application of some actual intelligence would have been nice.

It’s a shame to see John Cho and the great David Dastmalchian wasted in dross like this. Dastmalchian does what he can to elevate the material with his usual quirkily off-kilter performance and John Cho at least has the good graces to look kind of pissed off that he’s stuck in the movie. Then again, his general dismay might be due to his character being married to Katherine Waterston’s Meredith. You might not recognise the world’s most forgettable actress as she’s changed her hair but rest assured her near constant forlorn and teary-eyed expression is front and centre as she mumbles her way through a story arc of resenting her life as a mum. Perhaps her resentment is secretly driven by the fact her kids (Wyatt Lindner, Lukita Maxwell, and Isaac Bae) are all better actors than she is?

There are fleeting moments of inspiration in AfrAId but they never amount to anything due to the disjointed screenplay that can’t possibly cover up the ignorance driving the plot forward and the utterly inconsequential nature of everything that happens. If there’s anything to actually be AfrAId of, it’s that Blumhouse decides to turn this cybertrash into a few-shot franchise instead of consigning it to the recycle bin and degaussing the hard drive.