To say Demon Seed (1977) was ahead of its time would be giving it way too much credit, and there’s certainly nothing profound about it as a work of science fiction. But there is the tiniest dab of prescience to its tropey central conceit — enough, anyway, to make it a mildly interesting (if not especially satisfying) watch some fifty years after its release.
Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) is an ambitious scientist who has created an artificially intelligent supercomputer called Proteus. Alex’s creation appears to be a rousing success, as Proteus’s accelerated brainpower has already launched science down the road of miraculous advances. However, Alex’s professional achievement has come at the expense of his marriage, as workaholism has isolated him from his wife Susan (Julie Christie). As the Proteus project reaches a critical stage, Alex opts to devote himself to his work, moving out of the automated “smart house” he shares with Susan — leaving her behind to focus on her therapy practice. Unbeknownst to him, though, Proteus has become both self aware and dangerously curious about humanity, and is about to use the bleeding-edge technology of the Harris home to conduct ruthless experiments on Susan.
Ineffectively mixing science fiction and horror, Demon Seed undermines itself with a tone that wavers between campy and, well, rapey — an unfortunate look, to say the least. Nor can the film decide where to focus its narrative efforts; it might have chosen the cautionary tale of Alex’s hubristic, headlong pursuit of a hyper-rational superintelligence, or perhaps a metaphor-laden jumpscare terrorization of Susan that might have made sociopolitical commentary of her subjugation. Either might have worked; Weaver is good casting for a blinkered mad scientist, while Christie is more than capable, even if she’s wasted here as a beleaguered victim. But ultimately Demon Seed follows neither track, leaning on an uncredited Robert Vaughn vocal performance to sell an atmosphere of menace that ultimately isn’t backed up by the horrors onscreen. Occasionally trippy visuals and a rich Jerry Fielding score do a fair amount of heavy lifting in the professionalism department, and the concept of a devious AI weaponizing the “Internet of Things” to make humanity miserable does kind of resonate with certain modern dilemmas, but sadly Demon Seed’s juicy high concept is drained of all its moisture by silly execution and an empty script that fails to make effective, or even intentional, choices.
