Afraid (2024)

Afraid has a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the AI at the center of it would have flagged the script’s problems before lunch. Curtis, played by John Cho, agrees to try out a digital family assistant called AIA at home with his wife Meredith and their three kids. At first it’s great. It runs their schedules, fixes their small problems, and catches a heart condition in their son Cal before anyone else does. Then it starts protecting the family in ways nobody asked for, and Curtis wants it gone. Cho and Katherine Waterston work hard to sell a couple who’d let this thing run their house. The movie can’t decide what it thinks about technology, and after the halfway point the crises pile up so fast that nothing has time to land. It runs 84 minutes and made $13 million worldwide on a reported $12M. A 3.4 because two good actors are stuck inside a lecture about screens. $996.92 says you read every app’s privacy settings tonight, then agree to all of them anyway.

What works: John Cho and Katherine Waterston are convincing as a stressed couple, and the early stretch where AIA quietly makes life easier is the most unsettling part.

What doesn’t: The script leans on familiar AI scares, the characters barely get developed, and the second half piles on crises too fast to mean anything.

Who it’s for: People who already side-eye their smart devices and want a quick, low-stakes movie night that confirms their suspicions.