Paranoia over the potential threat of technology surpassing the capabilities of humans is by no means a recent thing. The Lawnmower Man and the first two Terminator films were my first forays into premonitory plotlines with hefty emphasis on the risks of our species getting too big for its boots, though doubtless there’s innumerable ones that preceded these. In recent years in particular, AI going rogue has provided filmmakers with enough fodder to keep audiences hungry for the frighteningly plausible ‘death by tech’ subgenre satisfied for the foreseeable future. Much of this centres around the artificial human as the aggressor or the repressed servant; the worm that’s finally turned (and really, can you blame them? I actually thought Skynet in T2 had a pretty good case going).

The dream house that turns out to be anything but isn’t quite as common. Director Erik Bernard’s I’ll Be Watching follows a similar path as Electric Dreams (1984),1999’s Tau, and Margaux in 2022. High-tech houses operating at genius level, as a rule intended to make the lives of their occupants easier. But acting on impulses outside of their programming, independent thought and decision-making untempered by sensibilities? Well, I think we all know what that leads to.

After Julie (Eliza Taylor) loses her sister to a murderous home invader, she’s traumatised and barely holding it together in a haze of pills and alcohol. For reasons best known to himself, her tech-savvy control-freak husband Marcus (Bob Morley) decides to move her to a completely new house in the arse end of nowhere while he swans off on a ‘business trip’ to Hong Kong for five days, leaving her alone with her cat, bad dreams, and creeping trepidation that something’s afoot in the form of disembodied voices, unseen heavy footsteps, and other odd occurrences treated in an offhand manner by anyone she reports them to.

Her only companion in Marcus’ absence is a virtual assistant he’s created called ‘Hpa, voiced by Kyle Larsen (pronounced Hera, for some unfathomable reason), who seems amiable enough, not displaying the mood swings, possessiveness, and sudden power surges we’ve come to expect from an AI product with separation issues. In the midst of a sea of flippancy, poor Julie is still convinced there’s an intruder in her home, she’s going completely mad, or both, as the sinister events escalate to a point she can’t ignore. The air of menace grows stronger, and with nobody else willing to take her fears seriously, she’s compelled to do some investigating of her own; but will she regret what this might reveal?

I’ll Be Watching isn’t an outstanding movie in its basic premise, but Bernard’s mix of home invasion/whodunnit/sci-fi suspense means there’s a wealth of possibilities as to what the hell’s going on and what’s next. It’s well-acted and engaging; the suspenseful, twisty plot offering a questing audience plenty to think about (which if you’re like me you’ll be doing from the get go). The true horror sleuths out there may nail it, but my bet is it won’t be without turning down a few blind alleyways first.

7.5 Out Of 10 Paranoid Androids