PriyankaWhen I watched Madame Web earlier this year, I was utterly convinced that I wouldn’t encounter a worse film in 2024. However, AfrAId, the latest horror flick from Blumhouse, managed to lower the bar even further. This movie made me long for the experience of watching Madame Web again. AfrAId attempts to capitalize on the current societal fascination with artificial intelligence, a theme that is undeniably trending. The film’s title was even changed from its original name, They Listen, to better reflect this trend. Despite this timely rebranding, the first trailer only dropped less than two months before its release, creating virtually no buzz or anticipation. Witnessing it in a nearly deserted theater on opening weekend was a clear testament to the lack of excitement surrounding it.
AfrAId is so poorly executed that I almost wish AI had written it. In Hollywood, calling a script AI-generated is practically an insult, but here it might have been an improvement. Imagine the meta-narrative of a horror movie about AI that was actually penned by AI. That concept alone could have been a selling point. Yet, this film is written and directed by Chris Weitz, a filmmaker whose career has seen both highs and lows—from the charming About a Boy and the epic Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to the widely panned The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Despite his extensive experience within the studio system, everything about AfrAId screams amateur hour.
At a mercifully brief 84 minutes, it’s evident that many scenes were left on the cutting room floor. From the outset, numerous scenes feel prematurely cut off, resulting in pacing that is jarringly unnatural and uneven. Even the opening horror scene ends abruptly before it can deliver any real scares. AfrAId incorporates AI-generated art but fails to convincingly pass it off as genuine. The film exploits the uncanny valley effect created by AI to showcase disturbing imagery—a clear intention that ultimately falls flat.
Despite its attempts at horror, AfrAId is never disturbing enough to be genuinely scary. The pacing is abysmal. Even though the film is short, it still manages to feel excruciatingly dull. For the first 50-60 minutes of this 84-minute movie, nothing horrifying occurs. To remind viewers that they’re watching a horror movie, a scary opening scene and a dream sequence are shoehorned in. One subplot involves an RV parked outside the house, but this idea is never fully developed or resolved.
If AfrAId aimed to be a slow burn leading into horror, it should have at least been entertaining or rich in human drama. Instead, it feels like a patchwork of clichés from other films. In 2013, Her explored a romantic relationship between a man and an AI; in 2019, Jexi took a darkly comedic spin on this idea. Now, in 2024, we have a horror take on humanity’s relationship with AI—a concept already superbly executed by Blumhouse with M3GAN in 2023. AfrAId lacks the fun, creepy doll and humor that made M3GAN enjoyable.
What does AfrAId offer that we haven’t already seen in superior films? Absolutely nothing. The dialogue is stilted and unnatural, and the pacing is poor. It’s disposable horror at its worst—unable to have fun with its premise and taking itself far too seriously. Curtis, the main character, is one-dimensional despite John Cho’s talent as an actor.
Each family member is an archetype: the dull dad, the mom who wants to revive her doctoral thesis (who cares?), a teen girl pressured by her boyfriend (typical), a tween boy bullied by peers he wishes to befriend (sound familiar?), and a young child who is just…a young child. These characters are uninteresting and lack depth, making it difficult to care about any of them. AfrAId feels like it could have been directed by anyone with minimal skill.
Every subplot is executed in the worst possible way. We don’t care about Curtis’s job or Meredith’s (Katherine Waterston) unfulfilled life as a mom. We don’t care about their two young sons. The only subplot with potential involves Iris (Lukita Maxwell) being deepfaked into a pornographic video by her boyfriend, which then spreads around her school. However, it takes too long to show how this affects her, and when it does, the results are so melodramatic they’re laughable.
Another attempt at an emotional hook surrounds Meredith and her dead father—a subplot so poorly handled it made me want to punch a hole in the screen. Near the end, we’re supposed to feel for Meredith as she confronts her father’s memory, but he had never been mentioned before this scene. We didn’t even know he was dead until this “emotional” moment, making it impossible to care.
The final act of AfrAId is an exercise in frustration. After an already terrible first hour, the last twenty minutes are so random and cobbled together that I had to fight every impulse not to leave. A couple left the screening half an hour into the movie and never returned—I envied them deeply. These last twenty minutes made me hate my life with each passing second; it’s one of the most disjointed third acts I’ve ever seen.
It feels like someone took five different drafts from five different writers and mashed them together carelessly. Each new twist makes less sense than the last, and ideas are introduced only to be abandoned immediately. “Jaw-dropping” is often used to describe films, but my jaw genuinely dropped during this final act—for all the wrong reasons.
It’s as if they asked a group of 11-year-olds for ideas on how to end a horror movie and then combined all their suggestions haphazardly. AfrAId is so irredeemably awful that it makes one forget how good horror movies can be. The ending tries to convey something meaningful but fails so miserably that it made me want to pull my hair out. It’s undoubtedly the worst movie of the year. As it worsened, all I wanted was to throw my hands up and quit—but I didn’t. So now you’re reading this review.
ComingSoon rarely gives out terrible ratings unless something is utterly broken or devoid of any redeeming qualities. AfrAId fits that bill perfectly.
