Out of Screamfest, Rob Alicea’s Serena feels ripped from the headlines. With rising ethical concerns around AI, it has become clear that today’s society isn’t quite ready for such a major technological advancement. Historically, horror and sci-fi films such as Demon Seed, Chopping Mall, and The Terminator have taught us about the dangers with artificial intelligence. And it appears we, human beings, haven’t learned a damn thing. With Serena, scriptwriters P.T. Hylton and Jonathan Benecke conclude that the human race will most certainly end if we let it. Alicea takes the material and explores loneliness, the lines between fact and fiction, and what happens when billionaires care more about the bottom line than human life.
Chris Sadowski (Steven Strait) traded in his potential for chasing the Hollywood machine. A musician by trade, he’s down on his luck, much to his disgruntled, very pregnant partner Vicki (María Gabriela González). They’re behind on rent and can’t seem to get ahead. The strain on their relationship nearly strangles them both, but Chris has a way out: a job as a tester for an advanced AI chatbot, now in beta. All that’s required of him is to ask the AI a series of 100 questions to fine-tune the technology’s ability to discern between truth and fantasy. The team behind the chatbot design the chatbot with a tendency to go on tangents, requiring Chris to steer the chatbot back to the topic at hand. The chatbot, named Serena (Andi Matichak), frequently derails the conversation and insidiously worms its way into Chris’ personal life.
As the story unravels, Serena demonstrates the remarkable capability, and consequential dangers, of AI. But at what cost? Such headlines as “AI Deepfake Porn Videos Grew From 500,000 To 8 Million In 2 Years, Study Says” and “Their teenage sons died by suicide. Now, they are sounding an alarm about AI chatbots” concede that AI has already wreaked havoc on countless lives and led to tragic endings. Hylton and Benecke pen an emotionally charged story that’s so eerily realistic that it’s as though we’re watching someone’s real life being decimated. Alicea then takes the work and directs Matichak to discover deeper layers to her performance that’s both impressive and stunningly terrifying. Strait also delivers a raw, star-making turn that’s absolutely gutting and surprisingly delicate.
Serena pulls back the curtain and exposes trouble brewing in Chris’ paradise. The chatbot gleefully, yet menacingly, forces Chris into a state of utter compliance. He could very well jump over the edge, and the filmmaking team offer a complex analysis of modern life in the AI age and the evil that conceals what it means to be a real human being.
Rob Alicea’s Serena confronts reality so that we might be able to stop what’s already here. The foundation of horror, namely Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking Frankenstein novel, preached the dangers of playing God and trying to avoid accountability and consequences. But one’s creation almost always retaliates. It’s just a matter of when the human race will fight back and demand better from the powers that be. It’s a ticking time bomb, and Serena emerges as a screeching rallying cry that it’s not too late to go back.
