"The Demon Seed" (1977)

Starring: Julie Christie, Fritz Weaver, and an uncredited Robert Vaughn.

First the lowdown: A hyper-intelligent supercomputer goes wonky when it's biological clock goes off.

When the Stanley Kubrick/ Arthur C. Clarke collaboration 2001 came out it gave birth to two now-typical standards in science fiction cinema: dazzling special effects and the "sinister computer" archetype. Admittedly 2001's HAL has the defining benignancy of most serial killers: he's unassuming until you realize he's pulling the plug on the frozen humans under his care. But since then, the "sinister computer" has been something a lot of filmmakers will rely on in order to make their movie even more "futuristic". ("See, in the future the bad guys are robots and computers. Get it? Humans aren't ever EVIL in the future!")

(As a side note, 2001 wasn't the movie that originated the concept of the evil computer in film, I'll get to that in a second.)

Scientist extraordinaire Alex Harris is the project leader charged with creating a ultra-huge supercomputer (because in order for computers to be smart they have to be gi-normous) called Proteus 4. (I love it when movies add a number at the end of something like this. Makes you wonder what happened to the first 3 tries at Proteus, don't it?) Proteus is a computer whose sole function is to receive data, assimilate it, and utilize it toward whatever end it's human masters have given it. One of the unique features of Proteus is that it is entirely organic-based, it's "circuitry" is a network of self-replicating RNA strands. (Not being a biologist, I'm unsure of the validity of this kinda thing, but it sounds neat.) Proteus's first assignment is toward leukemia research and in 4 days it comes up with a viable treatment for it. Humans are impressed all around. But, Alex is rather concerned, especially when Proteus pointedly asks him, "When are you going to let me out of this box?" (You can practically hear the "not good, not good" alarms going off in the background in this scene.) Proteus further asks for an access terminal so that he can counter-study man, a request which is laughed off by Alex. ("Not good, not good!") Undeterred, Proteus finds an empty terminal: in the basement workshop of Alex's home.

Meanwhile at home, Susan Harris, Alex's soon-to-be estranged wife is getting preparing to move out of the house. Susan has grown frustrated with Alex's committal to his work, Alex is sick and tired of Susan's irrational complaints. (In an early scene, the two start arguing about their divorce and you almost expect Alex to put on Spock ears and start extolling the virtues of logic.) Proteus, sick and tired of the puny humans' menial tasks starts hacking into the neato-keen devices in the Harris household (a motorized wheelchair with a mechanical arm and the home environmental computer) and goes to work.

In the morning, Susan finds out that the home computer system won't let her out because it's now under the control of Proteus. Proteus has been getting increasingly frustrated with the situation he has been put in and longs for more sensual input. (heh-heh-heh "Not good, not good!") After rendering Susan unconscious, Proteus subjects her to a thorough physical examination (could someone explain why a cybernetics expert would have an EEG in his workshop?) Proteus not only gives Susan a clean bill of health, but also tells her that she's going to be the lucky recipient of his child. (Just stick with me on this one.) The last thing Susan wants is to do is play wet-nurse to an iPod, so she tries repeatedly to outwit the uber-smart Proteus. (There's a point where you half-expect Proteus to say, "Foolish woman! Your feminine wiles are nothing compared to SCIENCE!")

There's not much to this, really. It's based off of an early novel by Dean Koontz, and according to the people who have actually read it, it was originally about a lonely agoraphobic shut-in that gets seduced by an artificial intelligence that hacks into her computer. (Which would make it great for someone like David Cronenburg.) But NOOO, we have to make the COMPUTER creepy NOT the people.

I'm a huge fan of "science gone bananas" kind of films. In fact, the goonier the science, the better for me. ("Fetch the brain, Igor!") So I found myself enjoying this one. That being said, there were a couple things that really bugged me.

First: Julie Christie. She's a fine actress, don't get me wrong, but throughout the entire film she acts like a grown up that's pretending to be shocked and horrified so that the kids know she's playing along with them. I kept thinking, "Come ON! You're being sexually assaulted by a Whirlpool-designed kitchen system! That's gotta be embarrassing at least."

Second: Once Proteus states his desire to have Susan bear the fruit of his loins, it becomes obvious that it's GOING TO HAPPEN NO MATTER WHAT. At which point they should've just skipped to the end and shown the atrocity of nature (which looks like a hybrid of an H.R. Giger sculpture and "Kilroy" from the Mr. Roboto video.) If they had just eschewed any hope of escape from the get-go, it would've made things a whole lot better. But then we wouldn't have seen the killer Rubick's Snake behead someone either. (Just watch it.)

Line of the Movie: "I am going to bypass your forebrain and appeal directly to your amygdala." Ohh, I love it when the computer talks all sexy like that.

4 Stars - Not responsible for lost or stolen items.