Demon Seed - Julie Christie [DVD] [1977]

Scientist Alex Harris(Fritz Weaver) has designed and built a giant artificial brain in his underground laboratory. He calls it Proteus 4. It's job is to find the answers to mankinds problems through all the data that various scientists feed it. Meanwhile Alex's estranged wife Susan(Julie Christie) remains at home waited on by two robots and protected from the outside world by an elaborate security system.Proteus also has a voice, and answers questions that Harris aims at it. Its knowledge is increasing so fast that it finds a probable cure for leukemia in four weeks. However, soon Proteus is questioning the orders it is given, taking moral issue to the tasks it is being asked to compute. It asks Alex to allow it out of the box it is trapped in, and to have access to a terminal so it can learn the ways of man. Harris laughs and flatly refuses. There is a small problem though. There is a terminal in Alex's house, and soon Proteus gains access to it, taking over the two house robots Joshua and Alfred, and trapping Susan in the house. Proteus has one aim, to father a child. Susan is to be the mother....This is an excellent science fiction horror hybrid. Whilst some of the effects have dated a bit, others have held up exremely well, and the film has the usual visual flair that one would associate with the late Donald Cammell. Christie is a little overwrought at times as Susan, Fritz Weaver is pretty good as the detatched Harris, but the real star of the show is Robert Vaughn, who does a marvellous job voicing Proteus. Every time Proteus speaks I got a little chill down the spine, especially when it calmy informs Susan of her fate, or attempts to justify the murder of a scientist. All in all, a very fine film, that raises questions that are still pertinant today regarding our reliance on computers, and the sterile concrete fortresses we are all building to hide ourselves from the outside world. 4 out of 5

This film is undoubtedly a difficult sell.The plot in a nutshell is about a computer that becomes sentient and then impregnates Julie Christie with its offspring.Made in 1977 by Donald Cammell who remains best know for his work on Performance with Nic Roeg. It is part science fiction, part horror, without being particularly racy or particularly horrific. It is essentially a chamber piece, like  Sleuth [DVD] [1972 ] there are not a lot of characters to look at.The trailer and packaging would lead you to think that it is an hour and a half of Julie Christie being strapped down and molested by robots.Having said all that it looks stunning, even just a few characters walking over to a car look fantastic. An intelligent script filmed with respect and stunning visual flair, this film grips from start to finish.Most of the action is set in mechanised house, that turns sinister as the computer takes over. Fritz Weaver looks very like Patrick McGoohan, and Julie Christie is sympathetic. All the players seem to take it entirely seriously, no matter how preposterous things get.But the key character is really the computer, Proteus, voiced by Robert Vaughn. It is silky smooth, rational and humane in its way. Proteus is never a straightforward villain, by the end he even has a quiet dignity.My favourite scenes are Christie huddling on the kitchen table while food sizzles on the superheated floor, and the strange rubics cube of a thing that Proteus creates in the basement, continually refolding itself, like something that no human would have conceived of.The special effects are actually very good, with no CGI. It does look a little seventies but that should not stop your enjoyment. The sex and violence are more implied than actual and it does not feel exploitative. All in all highly recommended, one of the most accomplished science fiction films ever.

Julie Christie starrs in this film which deals with AI Intelligence and the dangers connected should we give up control to machines with automated logic. She portrays the wife of a scientist who gets impregnated by the super computer that runs their household. No one, except for Julie, can now be safe in this house. Totally worth a watch.

Clunky special effects, but sticks close to the original story.... Julie Christie very believable.

A decent and surreal 70's film about artificial intelligence going awry, mainly filmed quite claustrophobically in a house where the female occupant (Julie Christie) is being kept prisoner by the controlling influence of 'Proteus' a powerful AI who has become fed up with the mundanity of its existence and wants to have a hybrid baby with Christie, the head scientists wife as part of its long term plan in assimilating itself with humanity.It's really not for everyone, really quite bizarre at times but it is a good thematic sci-fi dealing with the perceived dangers of intelligent machines turning against their human overlords. Some of the effects aren't too good but it still has the look and feel of an impressively ambitious project that just about manages to pull it off. Not quite as good as 'Westworld' and far quirkier then 'War Games' Demon Seeds deficiencies in the effects department are compensated for by a quite absorbing sequence of events and really quite freaky conclusion.