AfrAId (2024) is directed by Chris Weitz and stars John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, Wyatt Linder, Isaac Bae, David Dastmalchian, Keith Carradine, Ashley Romans, and Bennett Curran. The film follows The Curtis family after they’re selected to test a new artificial intelligence named AIA (Liu). Anticipating their every need, AIA quickly becomes a welcome addition to the household. Unfortunately, AIA eventually does what experimental movie AIs often do and begins going to chilling lengths to protect its new family. 

Although the film features a couple of exciting names, they’re handcuffed by its consistently shoddy quality. John Cho plays the typical family patriarch horror protagonist, but his only distinguishing character trait is that he has thoughts of being unfaithful to his wife. How does this make me like the character more when the script never makes him answer for this behavior? The only thing this results in is a sequence, where I shit you not, a character convinces John Cho AIA will kill her unless he’s unfaithful to his wife. I’m unfortunately not very compelled by a protagonist whose most heroic moment is essentially just him saying, “Yes, I will have sex with you to save your life.” That being said, it is hilarious in the way the best kinds of bad movies often are. 

Katherine Waterston plays a generic mother who’s disillusioned with her suffocating family life but finds solace in a budding friendship with AIA. The idea has potential, but it never ends up being important to the story. Why include it if it doesn’t result in any moral complications for the character? I watched this movie the day of writing this review and have already forgotten her ultimate fate. She’s that forgettable of a character. 

The couple’s three children are the icing on the cake in terms of horrible characters and basically just boil down to “Ipad kid, oblivious first grader, and moody teenager.” For example, I think the moody teen played by Lukita Maxwell might hold the world record for the most annoyed eye rolls in a movie that’s 90 minutes or less. It’s frustrating because the script requires these kids to be so unbelievably dimwitted that they’ll unironically sit and watch The Emoji Movie (2017) just because AIA told them to. This stupidity isn’t exclusive to the children, however. There’s one particularly goofy sequence in which Cho and Waterston discuss shutting down the “scary AI” in a room where they know it’s listening to everything they say. Why not just step outside?! 

This fancies itself a horror experience but is maybe one of the least scary movies I’ve seen in a long time. It does, however, achieve some unintentional laughs due to these poorly executed scares. SPOILER ALERT. For example (I can’t believe I’m writing this), the climax ends with the family being saved after police burst into their house, shoot AIA, and reveal that the only reason they came is because someone “SWATTED” them. Seriously. On top of this, AIA bleeds metallic blood all over the floor. It’s simply a cascade of endlessly stupid details and/or moments. 

Overall, this is one of the worst horror movies I’ve seen this year, but also won’t be at the bottom of my list considering how unintentionally hilarious it is. Everything you can think of the movies tries to do, it does it half-assed. However, sometimes it’s tough to take your eyes off an accident happening in real time. D