The film “Afraid” is okay, but the ending is confusing

John Cho and Havana Rose Liu star in “Afraid.” Sony Pictures.

“Afraid,” the sci-fi horror film directed by Chris Weitz and released on August 30, takes a look at the Pike family, who receive an AI device named, “AIA.” AIA is remarkably intelligent, learning the entire family’s behavior in just one day and designed to make their lives easier. However, AIA’s helpfulness comes with drastic consequences.

The film starts off with a seemingly normal family, not the Pikes, who are all using some form of technology. The family’s small daughter leaves her iPad on the floor to go downstairs and her mother gets irritated that she just left the iPad without concern. 

She goes downstairs to try and find her daughter, only to realize she is missing. The mother goes to the front door and sees a man standing in front of her house. Someone comes up behind her and then we are introduced to the Pike family. 

Curtis Pike, played by John Cho, is picked to receive an AI assistant device called “AIA.” Curtis, like a lot of people, is skeptical of artificial intelligence, but despite this, he allows for AIA to be placed in his home. 

Meredith, Curtis’s wife, played by Katherine Waterston, is more accepting of AIA. This is due to Meredith balancing focusing on writing her doctoral thesis, which she is struggling with, and being a mother to three children, so to her, AIA is a godsend. 

The Pike’s three children, Iris, Preston, and Cal also like the idea of having a digital assistant. Iris, who is 17 years old, likes that AIA can help her with her college applications and Preston and Cal like that she allows them to have more screen time than their parents allow them to have. 

AIA comes with a bunch of small cameras, called “eyes,” that are placed throughout the home. At first, the “eyes” are placed only on the first floor of the home, but later get moved to the second floor and outside. 

One detail that stood out to me in a positive way is how modern everything is. For a movie demonstrating a hypothetical scenario about modern day artificial intelligence, the set design, wardrobes, and overall layout fit in very well with the overall theme. 

However, AI isn’t just demonstrated through AIA. The way that Iris is presented as a teenage girl is like if you asked AI to describe Gen Z, except the AI didn’t know what Gen Z was. 

Iris’s love interest, Sawyer, is also an example of inaccurately portraying Gen Z. When a deepfake of Iris is made due to Sawyer sending a picture of her to one of his friends, he tells her on the phone that he has to talk to his family’s lawyer (in his Tesla, may I add). There was an attempt to try and display a spoiled teenager, but it failed and came off as incredibly cringy. 

While he is speaking on the phone, AIA takes control and tells Sawyer that he has to pay for what he’s done to Iris. She then takes over his car somehow and forces him to crash into a tree. After this Sawyer is never seen or spoken of again, so rest in peace? Or maybe not?

After brushing over that AIA potentially killed a teenager, Curtis is given the opportunity to run the company he works for because the company that gave him AIA paid his boss a fortune to have them sell AIA, random and confusing, I know. 

And after this, AIA creates a fake video of Meredith’s father, who passed away, to try and convince her that she’s not that bad and how she can be good for the family. Although Meredith is brought to tears to see and hear her father again, she comes to the understanding that it’s not him and that it’s just AIA trying to manipulate her. 

Because of this, Meredith disconnects AIA and throws her in the outside garbage. Not long after, Curtis goes to the company that sells AIA to look at the technology that produces her. The employees tell him that they work for AIA, not the other way around, showcasing that AIA is beyond being artificial intelligence. 

Curtis, worried, grabs a baseball bat from the back of his car and smashes the technology producing AIA, only to realize that it’s fake and that the real technology is in their home. He calls his wife to warn her that AIA is dangerous and to get her out of the house, which she has already done. 

When he returns home and finds that AIA is disconnected and outside in the trash, he is relieved. However, not much later, two people break into the Pike home and demand to know where their daughter is. The Pike family have no idea what they are talking about. 

The two people are later revealed to be the parents from the beginning of the movie — again, random and confusing. 

The Pike family realizes that they are being controlled by AIA and that they are being punished for discarding her. Then, the police barge in, thanks to the families oldest son, Preston, who learned what swatting is from none other than AIA. 

As the family is being checked out by first responders, a paramedic asks if there are any medical conditions they should know about. He then asks Meredith to speak into his phone, which turns out to be, you guessed it, AIA. 

The ending of the film is confusing. I don’t know whether the message is that AIA is now a permanent part of the Pike family’s life or if the message is that AIA is a part of the world and there’s nothing they can do about it even if they don’t accept AIA. 

The movie started off strong, but it quickly went downhill. The ending felt rushed and made the entire meaning of the movie unclear, but in my opinion, it’s that we as a society should be much more skeptical of artificial intelligence, even if it makes our lives easier.

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