Afraid (2024) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Chris Weitz

Cast: John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Liu

Release Date: November 5, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

Curtis (John Cho) and his family are selected to test a revolutionary new home device: a digital family assistant called AIA. Taking smart home to the next level, once the unit and all its sensors and cameras are installed in their home, AIA seems able to do it all. She learns the family’s behaviors and begins to anticipate their needs. And she can make sure nothing – and no one – gets in her family’s way.

‘Afraid’ joins a hard working father named Curtis and his family who as part of a new, massive account is asked to test out a groundbreaking new AI device called AIA in their family home. Unable to turn down the option for fear of losing out on the prospective account, Curtis brings the device into their home and it quickly proves to make life easier for every member of the family, while also adapting to their world at a shocking pace. But when things start to go wrong for the family and AIA takes matters into her own hands so to speak, it puts things on a dangerous path that could mean trouble for the family and their future unless they can find a way to stop her or get her out of their lives, but doing so will be easier said than done.

Written and directed by Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass, The Twilight Saga: New Moon) who does a decent job at the helm of ‘Afraid’ guiding along the story with style and some rewarding ideas and concepts lurking behind the surface but isn’t quite able to fully realize their potential. The film’s cast includes John Cho (Star Trek Into Darkness), Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms), Lukita Maxwell (TV’s Shrinking) with David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad) and Keith Carradine (TV’s Fear the Walking Dead) who each offer largely capable performances for the most part in their respective roles.

‘Afraid’ is a fairly mediocre thriller that has some fitting concepts and ideas backing it up, along with a solid cast at its disposal. While it never completely crumbles, it does fail to ever fully realize its potential and instead squanders the material most of the time in order to deliver an intriguing tale with a potential reality that has the power to be truly terrifying, but never manages to realize a way to let it work in a manner that will hook audiences or keep viewers fully invested. It instead uses a few too many familiar tropes and story progressions that end up leaving viewers with a somewhat unsatisfied feeling that’s unable to get fully under your skin, seeming content to let the story follow a familiar pattern and progression that ends at a point that would have potentially been a great place for it to really build into something exceptional.

There are some undeniably creepy ideas under the surface and the way that the AI so capably adapts and grows is unnerving in its own right, not to mention the device’s lack of hesitance to make choices that will be frowned upon by those it’s trying to help. It also seems determined to add in some kills that are noticeably limited to the constraints of its PG-13 rating and it can’t quite seem to decide whether it wants to be a slasher along the lines of something like M3GAN or a psychological thriller at its core, instead resulting in almost a jumbled combination of the two.

Director Chris Weitz does a competent job of making ‘Afraid’ look visually great, slick and stylish and the capable cast led by John Cho and Katherine Waterston offer worthy performances for the most part, yet the talent behind it still can’t quite manage to make it evolve into anything that’s above average. Those who are intrigued by the concept or are fans of the key cast may want to give it a chance and decide for themselves as it’s by no means entirely terrible, but I would strongly encourage those of you who haven’t yet seen the film to rent it before purchasing for good measure.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Afraid’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks fantastic as a whole and delivers a clean, sharp and richly detailed presentation from start to finish that’s absent of any noticeable issues or glitches to be uncovered along the way. Detail is solid throughout, with everything from character faces and specifics to the interior of the house and the almost futuristic looking AI housed building and everything else looking sharp, colorful and great, which is all only further complemented by satisfyingly deep black levels and shadowing throughout. Overall, this is a great high definition presentation that should have fans and newcomers very pleased.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack is quite solid in its own right and it provides a crisp, clean and often fairly aggressive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all five available channels in order to send some music, action and vehicle effects, along with more expanding throughout the various speakers whenever fitting, while never allowing any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously to become negatively affected or distorted in the process. Overall, this is a very nice 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that holds up admirably at every turn and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Afraid’ features a couple of extras including some ‘Deleted and Extended Scenes’ from the movie which includes an Alternate Ending (running approximately 15 minutes in length altogether) and the Behind the Scenes Featurette ‘The Dark Side of AI’ (running approximately 6 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘Afraid’ Arrives on Blu-ray & DVD November 5, 2024 & is Now Available on Digital from Blumhouse & Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

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You can purchase ‘Afraid’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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