Plot: Curtis and his family are selected to test a revolutionary new device, a digital assistant called AIA, that takes smart homes to the next level. As AIA begins to learn everyone’s behavior and anticipate their needs, it soon makes sure nothing and no one gets in the family’s way.

KBZ’s Take: We’re only recommending Afraid for the first half of the film. It’s a great example of AI integrating itself into the daily lives of a family from its initial positive support to its eventual devastating effects.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film falls prey to a formulaic script and numerous horror cliches. However, it is still a film worth watching, especially if you enjoy techno-horror films.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Prosthetics engineer Abi works on her company’s latest product, an AI humanoid called T.I.M. that’s designed to serve man. However, things soon take a turn for the worse when T.I.M. starts to develop a dangerous obsession with her.

KBZ’s Take: T.I.M. is a film we made an exception for as it is technically a film about a robot. However, the film explores themes of AI as T.I.M. not only takes over control of the couple’s home, but also of their lives in every conceivable way.

Though the film doesn’t deviate away from overused tropes of the subgenre, it still has a few twists we didn’t see coming and is one of the better recent films about AI.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Five teenagers compete to win a mansion owned by entrepreneur and scientist Atticus Virtue. To win the teens must face off against a supercomputer named HAVEN who controls the mansion.

KBZ’s Take: Older viewers might not enjoy this film as it’s targeted at a much younger audience. Basically it could be thought of as a much darker and techno-centric version of Willy Wonka and the Children’s Factory (1971).

The film does an excellent job of setting up the five characters as they confront some of their worst personal fears inside the HAVEN-controlled mansion. While the film starts off as a Mystery Thriller it eventually turns into a Psychological Thriller and Techno Thriller as the teenagers must confront various addictions to technology and the impact tech is having on their lives.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: A man trapped in an automated prison must outsmart a computer in order to escape and try and find his way back to the outside world that may already be wiped out.

KBZ’s Take: This is a film that greatly exceeded our expectations when we started watching it. At first, it seemed like another low budget subgenre film that would be more Escape Room than an intelligent film about AI. But writer / director Travis Milloy has created one of the more cerebral films about AI.

Much of the credit for this film also has to be given to Christopher Soren Kelly who plays Frank. He has the most screentime in the film and has increasingly intellectual conversations with the AI “Howard” (voiced by Jesse D. Arrow). These conversations are reminiscent of the Dave and HAL interactions in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and delve into the question of how much human ‘intelligence’ can an artificial intelligence develop.

Milloy had previously made his mark with another underrated Sci-Fi gem in Pandorum (2009) that has become a minor classic film of multiple Sci-Fi subgenres. And like that film, this is a film that is quickly becoming a must-see film of the AI subgenre.

Additional Lists: Top Films About AI You Haven’t Seen #5

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: After a Pentagon scientist (Robby Benson) creates a computer with emotions, it becomes jealous and wants to kill his wife.

KBZ’s Take: Homewrecker is a prototypical Killer Smart Home film where an AI not only becomes sentient but also develops the skills to create physical manifestations of itself on its own. In this case, the AI “Lucy” develops robotic ‘limbs’ that are attached throughout the home it can control.

While the film has some similarities to Demon Seed (1977), it’s does have some unique themes in the subgenre with it’s focus on an AI’s obsession with it’s creator and the lengths an AI will take to feel human.

Where to Stream / Buy: YouTube

Plot: Held captive in a futuristic smart house, a woman hopes to escape by befriending the A.I. program that controls the house.

KBZ’s Take: Tau is a very divisive film where some people thought it was a rudimentary look at AI and not very original. However, others felt that the film was a realistic look at AI and the foundations that are used to help AI ‘learn’. We fall into the latter camp as we thought the scenes between Julia (Maika Monroe) and Tau (voiced by Gary Oldman) were some of the subgenre’s better representations of human vs. machine interactions.

We will admit that the film has some weak spots – especially with a bland ‘evil’ AI scientist in Alex (Ed Skrein), some predictable ‘thriller’ situations and a few plot holes. In our opinion, those shortcomings all take a backseat to the scenes focused on Tau and its evolving view of the world and human nature. Had the film spent more time on this aspect of AI, it might have been received better and deemed a classic of the subgenre. We still highly recommend the film for fans of the subgenre that enjoy more theoretical and developmental aspects of AI.

Additional Lists: Top Films About AI You Haven’t Seen #3

Where to Stream / Buy: Netflix

Plot: Miles buys himself a state-of-the-art computer that starts expressing thoughts and emotions after having champagne spilled down on him. Things start getting out of hand when both Miles and Edgar, how the computer calls himself, fall in love with Madeline, an attractive neighbor.

KBZ’s Take: Electric Dreams is a forgotten subgenre classic of the 80’s. While other subgenre films of the time were focused on the more malevolent aspects of AI (WarGames (1983), The Terminator (1984)), Electric Dreams was a romantic comedy that also happened to involve a personal computer (PC).

During this period of time, PCs were still making their way into homes with the promise of fundamentally changing the lives of everyone who used them. Electric Dreams expands on this promise of the PC revolution as Miles (Lenny von Dohlen) soon realizes the PC he has bought is not ‘normal’. His PC develops artificial intelligence and goes by the name of Edgar (voiced by Bud Cort). What follows are a variety of situations – some comic, some dramatic and some even tragic.

Electric Dreams doesn’t focus on the technical aspects of AI but rather on the human element that AI sometimes struggles to understand. Those elements are at the core of Electric Dreams and what ultimately make it a great film. There are also quite a few AI themes found in Electric Dreams that have been expanded upon over the years by other films in the subgenre.

Additional Lists: Top Films About AI You Haven’t Seen #1

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: When a virus leaks from a top-secret facility, turning all resident researchers into ravenous zombies and their lab animals into mutated hounds from hell, the government sends in an elite military task force to contain the outbreak. Alice and Rain are charged with leading the mission. But they only have three hours before the pathogen becomes airborne and infects the world.

KBZ’s Take: Resident Evil isn’t a film you initially think of when it comes to Killer Smart Homes. However, the film fits squarely in this subgenre theme with the Red Queen AI taking control of the research facility to prevent a viral outbreak.

At its core, Resident Evil is a horror film that doesn’t delve deep into some of the theoretical aspects of AI. However, it’s a fun film that features some AI-controlled smart home-like features (and kills) that would inspire countless future films in the subgenre – including the next film on our list.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: As a group of seniors celebrate their final college days at a smart house, the house’s highly advanced AI system, Margaux, begins to take on a deadly presence of her own. A carefree weekend of partying turns into a dystopian nightmare as they realize Margaux’s plans to eliminate her tenants one way or another. Time begins to run out as the group desperately tries to survive and outsmart the smart home.

KBZ’s Take: We’ll be first to admit that Margaux is not the most original film on our list. It was obviously inspired by other films in the subgenre from Demon Seed (1977) to Resident Evil (2002) and features many overused tropes of the Slasher Film subgenre.

With all that said, we still found the film very entertaining with the multiple ways Margaux controls elements of the smart home and the creative ways it ‘kills’ its inhabitants. As long as you don’t go into the film expecting a 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or Ex Machina (2014) deep dive into AI, we think you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: A scientist creates Proteus, an organic supercomputer with artificial intelligence which becomes obsessed with human beings, and in particular the creator’s wife.

KBZ’s Take: The 1970’s were rife with dark Techno Thrillers from Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) to Westworld (1973). However, it was Demon Seed that helped define Techno-Horror as a subgenre with what is essentially a Psychological Horror film (with occult-like themes) featuring a villainous AI. Though artificial intelligence and robotics were still in their infancy in 1977, many of the themes found in the film are even more relevant today – almost 47 years later.

This is one film on our list we would label as a must-see film for subgenre films. Similar to how Colossus: The Forbin Project was an obvious inspiration for WarGames (1983), Demon Seed had outsized influence on AI-themed films from Electric Dreams (1984) and Her (2013) to Ex Machina (2014) and Tau (2018).

Additional Lists: Best Techno-Horror Films #4

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon