‘I want to study man: his isometric body and his glass-jaw mind...’
While there have been many films that involve artificial intelligence becoming sentient, I can’t recall one that involves a computer attempting to impregnate a reluctant woman whilst also threatening to murder small children. That all sounds like it could be pretty creepy but unfortunately Demon Seed is closer to Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace than 2001: A Space Odyssey…
Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) is a brilliant scientist who develops a groundbreaking AI that he names Proteus (voiced by an uncredited Robert Vaughan) before promptly wandering off and leaving the machine in the care of his wife, Susan (Julie Christie). Very quickly, it emerges that the machine is horny for Susan, and so it traps her in her house and keeps her hidden from the public at large.
While Vaughan does a genuinely exceptional job in imbuing Proteus with some real menace, once the AI takes the form of a very shoddy looking robot the film becomes more silly than frightening. Christie does well in what must have been a thankless role, but this Dean Koontz adaptation would have worked better as a thirty minute episode of The Twilight Zone or something similar rather than a feature film.
I can’t remember how Demon Seed ended up on my watchlist, and I won’t be rushing to watch it again, but for people who enjoy a horror/sci-fi fusion there is plenty to enjoy here – Jerry Fielding’s ominous score, Donald Cammell’s assured direction and a committed cast save Demon Seed from the bargain bucket of B-movie bollocks.
