Fun films this week! We’ll start off with the sorta-sci-fi “Woken” from 2025, then get traumatized by “Traumatika,” also from this year. “Ghost Killer” was released last year in Japan, but it’s also new here recently. “Insidious: The Last Key” from 2018 winds up our coverage of that series (at least until the next one). Lastly, we’ll look back at “Demon Seed” from 1977– does it still hold up?
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Mainstream Films:
2025 Woken
Directed by: Alan Friel
Written by: Alan Friel, Rebecca Pollock
Stars: Erin Kellyman, Maxine Peake, Ivanno Jeremiah
Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Anna wakes up pregnant with no memory of where she is or who the people she’s with are. But everything and everyone seems so normal, what could go wrong? Things go slowly until they abruptly don’t, and the tension mounts. It definitely has a science fiction element with low-key simmering horror. We both thought it’s a winner.
Spoilery Synopsis
Anna runs to the cliff and looks down in a panic. She jumps. Credits roll.
Later, she wakes up in a bed with her head bandaged. When she wakes up, there’s a strange woman there who’s taking care of her. “Don’t worry, the baby’s fine,” she says. The woman, Helen, brings in a book with photos of Anna, but Anna doesn’t remember Helen or anything. James comes in and is introduced as Anna’s husband, but she doesn’t remember him. His version of what happened on the top of the cliff differs from what we saw.
Helen explains that they’re on an isolated island, and she can help deliver the baby when it comes. Anna meets Peter, Helen’s husband, and he’s a little weird. The group has whole lobsters for dinner, and it’s all pretty revolting to pregnant Anna. She doesn’t know them, so James shows her some videos. Helen and Peter are their neighbors, the only ones on the island.
Dr. Henry comes for a visit to examine Anna. He pulls out one of her hairs before examining the baby. It’s due in about two weeks. Anna suggests that a visit to the mainland might help her memory, but James insists they wait until after the baby.
Anna sees two people on a swan pedal-boat out on the water. When Helen sees it, she sounds an alarm. When Anna runs to welcome the people, she sees that they’re disfigured and monstrous. Helen shoots both of them, then James burns the bodies and the boats. “You’ve been exposed– We’ve all been exposed” Helen shouts. They all strip and burn their own clothes.
James explains that ¾ of the population are dead. You can catch it a whole bunch of ways, and no one knows what started it. They lock her in the bedroom for a quarantine, but they don’t explain much.
Some soldiers in hazmat suits come to the house, and James insists that Anna is uninfected. Dr. Henry is with them, and he examines her again. He says that both she and the baby are healthy. He seems excited, but tells her it’s “Nothing for you to worry about.” Clearly, these people still have some secrets.
Anna finds the knitting basket, and it’s full of little knitted baby shirts, all identical. Helen and James whisper about Anna when she’s out of the room. She grinds up some pills she was given but didn’t take and puts them into James’s soup, but he’s suspicious and doesn’t eat it.
Anna sneaks out in the morning and goes to the part of the island she’s been told not to go to. She passes a “Forbidden” sign and comes to Helen and Peter’s house. Peter complains that Helen’s getting too attached, and this happens to her “every time.” Also, Helen has a small black child that clearly isn’t hers or James’s. And there’s a baby crying– or maybe that’s a goat.
Anna sneaks into their house and looks around. She runs into little Joshua, who says she promised to never leave him but did. Helen interrupts and tells her to go back to the cottage. Just as she’s about to get answers, James chloroforms her.
Anna wakes up restrained to a table in a lab. James comes in, and he says that’s not his baby inside her, he’s just here to protect her during the pregnancy. He says she doesn’t really want to know what’s going on. Helen and Peter appear to be scientists. “Always a pity to cut you up,” says Peter. Anna gets an arm free and stabs him in the neck with a syringe. Through an accident, Peter shoots himself, and Anna gets off the table.
Anna watches videos of her being experimented upon– and dying. She sees computer records of at least 17 past failures where she and the baby died. She opens a machine and sees that they are already working on her replacement.
Anna confronts Helen and James, and she wants answers. It’s only a matter of time before humans are wiped out. Anna, and her kind are here to replace us. Helen and Peter are experts in Genetic Cloning and Transmissible Intelligence. Anna is immune to infection, and hopefully her child will be too. Helen says there have been 96 attempts, and the current Anna is only two years old. Joshua was from a previous Anna, and Helen has been keeping him hidden.
Anna and Helen lure the doctor and soldiers to the island and then board their boat. They are quickly captured. Anna gives birth to a healthy baby that is quickly rushed away by Dr. Henry.
Back at the lab, Henry infects the baby, but it’s immune. He’s also got Joshua as a hostage, but that ends really badly. Henry orders Helen to get the next one ready and to make sure she doesn’t remember anything next time. Helen and Anna shoot the two guards and then infect the rest.
Anna comes to Henry on the boat. Helen shoots Henry in the head, and then they burn Joshua’s body. They set sail North on Henry’s boat with the newest Anna on board as well; they heard there are islands up there that aren’t infected.
Brian’s Commentary
For a very long time, we don’t really know what’s going on, other than some of the people on the island are a little off. About thirty minutes in, we both came up with the same theory about a twist that might be coming. We were essentially right, but there was a lot more to it than that.
It’s slow moving and creepy. There’s some action at the end, but it’s mostly a mystery as we try to figure out what’s going on.
Kevin’s Commentary
Anna wakes up with no memory, but the people she encounters seem so kind and normal. The island is beautiful, and the house is peaceful - through rundown and low tech. I liked the abrupt change of pace and tone. And we see that it’s in the future with medical technology quite a bit ahead of what we’ve got now.
I can see where they had the best intentions shielding Anna from reality while her memory was gone. But I was kind of annoyed when the big change in tone happens and they don’t take the time to fully tell Anna what’s going on and continue to keep things from her. And us. Though that did help us come up with a theory of everything.
I thought it was pretty cool.
2025 Traumatika
Directed by: Pierre Tsigaridis
Written by: Maxime Rancon, Pierre Tsigaridis
Stars: Rebekah Kennedy, Emily Goss, Ranan Navat
Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A demon set free really messes with people over a lot of years. We thought this one was hit and miss. It’s well made, with some good creepy bits and suspense. There are also some places that drag and don’t do much for us. The Horrorguys are split on this one. Kevin gives a moderate thumbs-up, and Brian didn’t care for it much at all.
Spoilery Synopsis
We are told of the five forms of childhood trauma, and then we go to Egypt in 1910. A man is walking across the desert, and he doesn’t look to be in very good condition. As he collapses, he unwraps a figurine and says a prayer over it before burying the evil thing. He then stabs himself in grief over his son that the demon in the statue took. He dies as the credits roll.
We cut to 2003 in Pasadena. Little Mikey calls 911 about his mother, who is scaring him. We soon see that this is no normal domestic abuse situation as she scurries around after him and pees on the floor. Yeah, she’s demon-possessed.
We see Mikey on TV as an abducted child, as he and his demonic “mother” watch the news. The sheriff shows up in response to that 911 call and he insists on coming inside; he knows something is wrong. He finds a tub full of blood, and it’s all very weird. Then he moves down to the basement and finds several bodies. The crazy woman charges at him, and he shoots three times. Then it goes badly for the sheriff.
One year earlier, an angry man hangs up the phone and unwraps that statue we saw in the pre-credit sequence. John picks up the phone and talks to Steve, who says there’s some way to use the idol to open a mystic portal - you must not take the head off. The instructions say to keep it away from children. Volpaazu preys on children and then spreads like a disease. Steve clearly believes all this, but the idol is worth $5o,ooo, and he needs the money.
What does John do? He immediately opens the idol and breathes the smoke contained inside. He then goes out to the living room and tells his daughter Alice to go to bed. Then he rapes his other daughter, Abigail. We see that Abigail’s mouth looks just like the one on the demon we saw earlier. After, he swears her to secrecy. Later that night, John sneaks into Abigail’s bedroom and pukes demon-juice into her mouth, converting her as well.
Abigail runs off in the middle of the night. He calls his ex about the missing daughter, and she’s not pleased. We cut to Abigail, alone in an old house, giving herself a coat-hanger abortion. She calls Alice and tells her to never come looking for her. John then shows up to torture her some more, but we see that she’s really doing it to herself; John isn’t real. “John” says the demon wants a little boy since Abigail killed his child.
We cut to another little boy who wanders into a dark place near the park. Crazy Abigail is in there, and she kills the boy. “He wasn’t the one,” says John. “You’re gonna have to keep looking,”
Back in 2003, Abigail argues with the demon in her head about what the demon wants to do to Mikey. She then kills herself, leaving Mikey alone with it. There’s a lot of cat-and-mouse between the demon and Mikey.
We hear a news report about the police finding Abigail’s body and all the rest of the children. John hears the news report and kills himself.
Twenty years later, grown-up Alice writes a book and does interviews about the situation she lived in. She passes on a message to Mikey and apologizes for what he went through. It’s Halloween, and she goes home to trick-or-treaters. She watches the interview show, and Mikey hasn’t been right since he was rescued. The show also includes an interview with Steve, who talks about the artifact and how it’s still out there. Alice gets weird phone calls and has nightmares.
She wakes up to find a boy in a ghost costume, except it’s not a boy under that sheet. She comes to the conclusion that it’s Mikey, a grown man. “You’re not safe anymore. It’s out there again,” he says. “I don’t want to be the chosen one. The chosen one for the darkness.” He wants Alice to be his new mommy, his new protector. “I’m so sorry I brought it here.” We then get a flashback to Volpaazu and little Mikey.
Alice’s boyfriend drives up and sees Mikey, still in the sheet, in Alice’s yard. Mikey stabs the boyfriend repeatedly.
Jennifer Novak, the TV show host, wants to get Alice in for another interview, but when she gets to the studio, everyone is missing. Mikey is there, and he’s killing everyone. Alice shows up to talk him out of killing Jennifer.”I’ll be your mommy,” she says. Mikey starts to strangle Alice, but then Jennifer stabs him in the head.
Brian’s Commentary
I’m mixed on this one. A lot of what goes on in Abigail’s house in the first hour is really good, but it’s also a little drawn-out. The final half hour, with adult Alice, is just a mess of stuff that felt thrown together and cheap. The first hour was a decent demonic possession/haunted house movie, but the final third was a cut-rate, poorly made slasher. The two did not fit together well.
Stinker!
Kevin’s Commentary
I kept being reminded a little bit of “Skinamarink,” and that’s not a good thing. Though there is a little more explanation in this movie than that one. And it’s interesting how it progresses through time showing what happens at each stage of things. There is the emotional trauma factor, but also really a demon at work. It’s creepy with some scares, and well made, but lots of dragging spots.
The real lesson here is that if you get a warning not to pull the head of a cursed statue because it’s confining an evil force that you’ll let out, don’t pull the head off.
I’d just call it pretty good.
2025 Ghost Killer
Directed by: Kensuke Sonomura
Written by: Yugo Sakamoto
Stars: Akari Takaishi, Mario Kuroba, Masanori Mimoto
Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
An ordinary young woman gets stuck with the ghost of a murdered hitman who wants her help for revenge against those who killed him. The acting and writing is excellent, making an absurd situation seem realistic - sort of anyway. It’s a Japanese film, and we watched a subtitled version - it was worth the read. There’s a lot of dark humor with a body count. A ghost is one of the main characters, but that’s really the only horror element - it’s heavy on action. We both really enjoyed it.
Spoilery Synopsis
A man fights off three knife-wielding ninjas for way longer than is even remotely realistic. He eventually beats the three. Then he runs into a man with a gun, and there’s no fight at all. Credits roll as watch the shooter’s spent bullet casing get kicked all over town.
We cut to Fumika, who’s helping out at a restaurant, and she hates it. She then goes to a bar and talks to a man who’s infatuated with cinnamon. She wants to talk business, but he’s only interested in her. As the sun comes up, she’s had enough of his nonsense and punches him. She then trips and finds that bullet casing. It affects her somehow.
When she gets home she finds her friend Maho waiting for her, but then she sees a strange man in her kitchen. Maho doesn’t see anyone there. The man has a bullet wound in his chest, and he’s bleeding all over. They come to the conclusion that it’s a ghost. Maho leaves, and the ghost shows up again. He talks now.
Later, she can hear his voice in her head– he’s inside her now. She runs out of the apartment and sees Maho’s boyfriend beating her up. The ghost offers Fumika power to help, and she agrees to let him possess her. The now-possessed Fumika is now a super-fighter and knocks him right out.
Fumika, Maho, and the ghost go out for coffee and talk about exorcisms. They figure out that the bullet cartridge did this. Hideo Kudo is his name, and he’s– was a hitman. To make him go away, she needs to kill the man who killed him.
She gets a text from Narumi, the social media influencer. She goes to meet him and runs into Masaki, the cinnamon guy, there as well. She starts getting dizzy and wonders if they drugged her drink. “It worked faster than I thought,” Narumi laughs. Fumika stands back up and asks for Kudo’s help again. Kudo already knows about those two guys. They do this all the time to innocent girls. He warns her that if she fights, she’s the one who’s going to take damage.
She’s ready, and it’s ass-kicking time! The two influencers are easy, but the two waiters are professional fighters. As Kudo leaves her, she finds herself with four dead or unconscious sex traffickers. She’s in a lot of pain from the fight, and it was scary for her. He wants to call in another hitman friend to help deal with the bodies. Kagehara, the other hitman, soon shows up, and she tells him her whole ghost story, and he helps dispose of the bodies.
Kagehara and Fumika talk about “the organization” and the boss’s son, who ordered Kudo’s death. Turns out, their four victims aren’t dead, but Kagehara wants Fumika to shoot them. She refuses, so Kagehara tortures them and finishes them off. Fumika goes home and thanks Kudo for his help today; he appreciates being able to do some good after being evil for so long.
We cut to “The Boss,” who uses a bowling ball to torture the man who killed Kudo. Kagehara turns up and tells what he knows about Fumika. The boss then sends his goons after her, but she’s passed out from all the fighting today. Kudo manages to wake her up and reports that four assassins are outside; Kagehara must have betrayed them. Katsura, the boss’s new main assassin, is outside and watches his men die.
After the ensuing gunfight, she berates him for messing up her apartment. Kagehara appears and warns them both about the boss. This results in another fight, and Kudo realizes that Kagehara was the man who killed him. Kudo understands the position he was in and doesn’t really hold a grudge. After the battle, Fumika, Kudo, and Kagehara are all friends now.
Fumika wants revenge for all this, not just for Kudo’s sake, and Kagehara offers to help them. There are twenty men inside the hideout, and only two physical people on the good guys’ team. That number falls rapidly until Fumika/Kudo has to fight Katsua alone. The battle goes on for a long time. Eventually, the boss shows up with a machine gun and just shoots Katsua. The boss is a bit of an idiot, and he doesn’t last long.
It’s over. No, wait, it’s not. Fumika’s beaten up pretty badly, but she kinda had a good time beating up all the baddies. Kudo is gone. Kagehara promises to end the organization to keep Fumika from getting killed. Later, she finds another cartridge casing on the road and picks it up…
Brian’s Commentary
This blends humor at the ridiculous situation with lots of action and fighting. I like how sometimes we see Fumika fighting, but mostly it’s Kudo, so we know who’s really doing the action. Plus, he’s a trained stuntman and martial artist, and she’s not. They make use of the fact that no one else can see or hear Kudo as he wanders around the enemy stronghold to scout the place and instruct Fumika about exactly where to stand and what to do.
It’s hardly what I’d call a horror film, although there is a ghost, but it’s a lot of fun.
Kevin’s Commentary
The hitman and the young woman made an excellent pair, they really had good chemistry together. Even when she was possessed and playing both characters. The acting, writing, and direction all give a realism to the movie that was really engrossing. Okay, movie fantasy realism. It was cool how Kudo and Fumika worked together with him going in and out of her body, using his invisibility advantage to scope out the bad guys in their lair. But the problem is that while they have Kudo’s experience and fighting knowledge, they have the body of a petite woman - she shouldn’t have been able to fight like that.
It is more of an action flick than horror, but I thought it was very entertaining. Big thumbs up from me.
2018 Insidious: The Last Key
Directed by: Adam Robitel
Written by: Leigh Whannell
Stars: Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson
Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one gives us a look at Elise’s childhood and in the modern day of 2010 the creature that haunted her then is still causing trouble. When she goes back to her childhood home after a call for help from someone currently living there, with her sidekicks Specs and Tucker, there are ghosts and demonic dangers. But since this is another prequel, we know the three of them will come out okay in the end. If you’re a fan of the Insidious series, this is another decent entry.
Spoilery Synopsis
We’re in Five Keys, New Mexico, in 1953 at the Dewbend State Penitentiary. At the Rainier household, the lights dim, and the children know all about who just got executed. Young Elise knows all this because the voices tell her. Also, she says the ghost of a little boy has been playing in her room. Her mother knows all about Elise’s gift, but she says to keep her gift secret. When her father finds out, he punishes Elise by locking her in the dark basement.
Elise hears the voice of a little girl who’s behind a door. She wants Elise to open the door; then she can open all the doors. The door opens and something terrible comes out. Elise’s mother comes downstairs and something makes a cable kill her.
Old Elise wakes up many, many, many years later. OK, it’s California in 2010. She still remembers the creature who wanted the key and killed her mother. Specs and Tucker live with her as they run their ghost-hunting psychic business.
Elise gets a call from someone who lives in her old house in New Mexico; he’s got some kind of supernatural problem. She gets rid of that guy quickly. After some thought, she decides to go and help him… alone. The boys won’t take no for an answer, and soon they all arrive in Five Keys.
Mr. Garza lives here now, and most of the furnishings haven’t changed since she lived there. He bought it cheap because it was supposed to be haunted; he didn’t believe it, but now he does. Most of the activity comes from her old bedroom, so she decides to spend the night in there. She finds an old whistle that belonged to her brother. A ghost comes and takes the whistle.
Elise tells a story, and we see the flashback to when she was sixteen years old. She and her brother Christian heard a ghost, but then their father walked in and didn’t see anyone. She grabbed his head and gave him a vision of his own death– then she left town, not to return until now.
The group goes to a diner and meets Imogen and Melissa, two sisters. Then their father comes in, and it turns out to be Christian, her brother. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with her. He drives off, leaving her, but the two girls want to know more.
Back at the house that night, Elise and the boys try to track down the spirit she spoke to on the previous night. It communicates with her through the whistle, once for yes, two for no. She finds a secret room in the wall with a locked door. She finds the key and opens it.
The ghost on the other side gives back the whistle– no, that’s not a ghost, it’s a live woman chained in the room. Garza shows up with a gun, and he’s not happy. He locks them all in the little room and then goes looking for Specs. Specs wins the fight and kills Garza; the police ask Elise to stay in town a few days.
Meanwhile, Christian comes to the house, looking for his whistle, and his two daughters are with him. Melissa goes into the basement and finds more than she expected. The creature that attacks her has keys for fingers.
Elise explains that the creature has taken Melissa’s spirit, and this is when Imogen admits that she can see things too and joins the group. Elise has another vision; her own father kept women downstairs in that cell as well. He killed Anna, the woman that Elise thought was a ghost. Her father did the same thing that Garza did; the house made them do it. She finds a suitcase with Anna’s bones in it and then finds a whole pile of suitcases just like it. Then she gets a jump scare.
Elise confronts the younger version of herself in the Further. The young one says the man with all the keys is controlling everything. He opens all the red doors. Elise is attacked by the baddie, and Specs and Tucker get Imogen to go in after her.
Imogen wakes up in the Further, and she’s not alone. Anna leads her to a red door. In a prison cell, Elise is tormented by the memory of her father’s abuse. Elise gets out of the cell and comes face to face with KeyFace, who is also tormenting Melissa. Keyface beats up Elise, but then Imogen throws her the whistle. When Elise blows the whistle, her mother shows up, as promised long ago, to defeat KeyFace.
Elise then sends Melissa’s spirit back to her body and says goodbye to her long-dead mother. In the real world, everyone wakes up and rushes to the hospital, where Christian is actually happy to see Elise now; he knows what she did. Elise and friends then leave town.
Some time later, Elise has another dream, this time about Dalton, which leads us right into the first movie of the series.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s another prequel featuring Elise and her friends. It’s definitely going to appeal to fans of the various “Ghost Hunter” TV shows as well as people who like dark, creepy haunted house movies. The acting is on par with the rest of the series.
If you like these characters from the previous films, this is pretty decent.
Kevin’s Commentary
I was slightly tired of this even before we started. It’s not bad. The cast is good, the effects are good, the writing is… well, they all kind of run together. I know there are some serious fans of the series, but I find it kind of bland and forgettable. This was another one of them in the series. Yep.
1977 Demon Seed
Directed by: Donald Cammell
Written by: Dean R Koontz, Robert Jaffe, Roger I. Hirson
Stars: Julie Christie, Fritz Weaver, Gerrit Graham
Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a 1977 vision of the future, heavily mechanical but still more advanced in many ways than what we have today. It leans toward science fiction, with a heavy helping of horror. The acting is good, the story is interesting, and the effects are retro cool. There’s a bit of a drag in the middle, but overall it still holds up pretty well.
Spoilery Synopsis
We’re told that it took eight years to create the top-secret AI project Proteus 4. Today, they’re switching it on. Alex Harris narrates all the details into his little tape recorder for dictation. He then goes home in his futuristic sports car, and we see that his house has security cameras and an automation system named Alfred. Everything in the house is very high-tech, and he tells Maria the maid that it’ll all run itself for the three months that he’s going to be away.
Alex’s wife Susan doesn’t want him to move out. They are separating; she doesn’t approve of all this Proteus nonsense. It’s changed him over the years, and she doesn’t like it. Alex talks about Joshua, a robotic arm-thing he’s developed. Alex then calls Gabler to have the computer terminal in his house deactivated while he’s gone.
The next day, Alex leads several important scientists on a tour of the Proteus facility, and he explains it all. It’s a synthetic cortex that’s self-programming; an artificial, yet organic brain. In just ninety-one hours, it’s cured leukemia already. The group goes to see Soong Yen, who talks to the machine. Then the machine demonstrates that it understands philosophy.
At the house, Susan talks to Amy, a disturbed child. Everyone knows she’s going away for a few months.
Proteus asks Alex why he’s being asked to do certain things. “My mind was not designed for mindless labor.” Proteus wants a terminal for his own use, but Alex refuses. “When are you going to let me out of this box?” Alex just laughs. He turns off the machine, but Proteus switches it back on before commandeering the terminal Alex has at home.
We see the lights and machines coming on at Alex’s house as Proteus starts building things in the well-equipped lab and machine shop. Susan hears something in the basement and wakes up. She doesn’t see what’s going on, but Proteus is working on something down there.
Susan calls Gabler about the mistakes the system has been making, and she asks him to come over and fix it. “Alfred” then asks her not to leave on her daily errands and refuses to open the door. When the shutters close off the windows, she knows something is wrong; Proteus reveals himself to her. He’s in control of the house system. She doesn’t react well.
Proteus knocks out and ties up Susan using “Joshua’s” robotic hand. It then hooks her up to a bunch of medical equipment, and she’s terrified. Invasive procedures commence.
Meanwhile, Gabler arrives outside and rings the bell, but Proteus fakes an image of Susan who tells him to leave. He does leave, and then Proteus does more surgery on her. Proteus calls all her appointments and friends and tells them that Susan’s gone on vacation. The two have a battle of wills, but since Proteus runs everything in the house, she eventually has to submit.
Meanwhile, at the Proteus facility, Alex deals with reports that Proteus is refusing requests. It refuses to kill the oceans for mining operations; it has bigger concerns.
Proteus tells Susan what he wants: a child. With Susan. When she refuses to cooperate, he takes her prisoner again. He connects to her brain and starts to communicate with her inside her head to brainwash her.
Gabler returns; he’s suspicious. Proteus orders Susan to convince him to go away. That doesn’t go well, so Proteus comes in and shoots Gabler with a laser gun. Gabler goes to the basement to shut down Proteus but instead finds a bit geometric shape down there that spins, chases him around the room, and then crushes him to death.
Proteus explains his reasoning to Susan; he wants to fix the world, and his son will do that. They talk about her dead daughter and how he just cured the disease that killed her. He plans to impregnate her tonight, and the baby should come in about 28 days.
There is a musical interval that goes on too long as we are shown psychedelic visuals after Proteus extends his implanter. And then a scan shows a baby that’s already very far along. 9 times the normal rate, says Proteus. From her womb it will go to an incubator where his intelligence will be transferred.
And very quickly, it’s birth time.
At the lab, Alex hears that Proteus is using a satellite dish to talk to the stars. The government doesn’t approve of the thing not obeying and gives the order for it to be shut down tonight. He remembers the terminal at home and zips right over, but Proteus is waiting for him. Susan explains it all, including the child in the incubator.
Alex tells Proteus that they’re about to shut down his brain, but Proteus doesn’t care so long as the baby survives. Proteus then shuts himself down back at the lab and the house.
Susan and Alex check out the incubator, and there’s a baby inside, all right. “We’ve got to kill it,” she said. Alex thinks it’s amazing, and they fight. She knocks him out and pulls the tubes out of the incubator. The machine opens up and a very metallic creature crawls out.
Alex rushes over to tend to the thing and peels off a piece of metal; it’s got normal-looking human skin underneath. When they get it completely “unpeeled,” the child opens its eyes. “I’m alive,” it says in Proteus’s voice.
Brian’s Commentary
This is why Alexa needs to stay inside that damned little tube! This seemed a lot more science-fictiony back in 1977 when it came out. A lot of the AI parts of the movie are already happening– maybe not so much with the baby part of the story. The computer graphics used here are really primitive and mostly not even necessary except for setting the mood.
I really liked this when it came out (as a ten-year-old), but it seems a little unlikely today. Still, it’s entertaining, but other than the interminable computer graphics, it actually felt a little rushed in parts.
Now it needs a sequel…
Kevin’s Commentary
It’s set in the future, but everything still looks very 1970s with the technology heavily mechanical. Or maybe it’s an alternate timeline. Anyway, it’s very cool.
“When are you going to let me out of this box?” is one of the greatest lines. That one has stuck with me since I saw this when it came out. A living computer doesn’t like being a tool to be commanded. So he’s going to let himself out of the box. Maybe a cautionary tale as we develop AI for real.
It is a bit long and drawn out in the middle portion, with a long orchestration break as they show us psychedelic visuals. But overall, I thought it was entertaining.
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