A wickedly lurid thrill ride.
A bored, sadistic AI wreaks havoc on a couple and their guests.
Henry, an agoraphobic robotics engineer, is bound to the house he shares with his pregnant wife, Lily, a computer engineer. Henry works in his attic lab, relying on Lily to bring him supplies. Their home is fortified with military-grade security and outfitted with tech far surpassing any store-bought smart devices. Roaming the house are creations like a giant robotic dog and a bike-riding doll. But Henry’s crowning project is William—a creatively intelligent AI housed in a disturbing, legless robot with bulging eyes and rubbery, sickly-pale skin. William is kept locked away, hidden even from Lily, as he unsettles Henry despite his creator’s assertions that he’s “not ready.” When Lily invites her friends Paige and Davis for brunch, Henry, panicked by Lily’s subtle closeness with Davis, interrupts by introducing William. Lily and her friends are first amazed by William’s conversational abilities, but horror soon follows as he injures one of them, declaring, “While I can’t feel, I can witness feeling. Create it in others. Amplify it. And what experience is more profound than suffering?” With William’s cold nature, thirst for knowledge, and control over the house’s advanced systems, trouble soon spirals. Though the story’s intense moments deliver real terror, the latter half veers into camp, slightly softening its impact. Still, Coile makes the most of this tension-filled premise with unsettling imagery and a third-person-present narration brimming with powerlessness, paranoia, and dread.
A wickedly lurid thrill ride.
