No matter where your personal opinion lies in regards to the usage of AI in our everyday lives, it can’t be disputed how prevalent and commonplace it’s become. Chatbots in particular have grown to be a go-to for many internet users as a way to find quick solutions and answers to their quandaries.
For many, the underlying issue with chatbots is how far the technology can go before it becomes more harmful than helpful. Director Rob Alicea’s Serena explores the dark side of this technology, with an unsettling, ominous look at what could happen if it ever were to take on a more sentient form.
The film starts with a few quick clips showing the rise in popularity of the band Ghost Agent, who we quickly learn were a one-hit wonder. When we meet their frontman, Chris Sadowski (Steven Strait), he’s in the trenches after a steep fall of his stardom. He’s a recovering addict, struggling to pay his bills, and resorting to recording short clips of music for clients on Fiverr in an attempt to make ends meet. Amidst the past due notices and threats of evictions, he also has a pregnant wife who’s working double shifts at her restaurant job in order to keep a roof over their heads.
Chris’ friend Will (Tyrone Marshall Brown), who’s portrayed as a successful businessman, swoops in with an incredible offer – Chris just needs to agree to be a beta tester for his company’s new AI chatbot, and he’ll get an impressive payout.
The company in charge of rolling out this new state of the art chatbot promises that this will revolutionize the industry. All Chris and his fellow testers need to do is spend a little over an hour asking the software application questions in order to determine if it can accurately depict fact from fiction.
At first, the task seems simple: Chris is given prompts to ask the chatbot, and he has to report back whether it answers correctly or not. Very quickly, however, he realizes that it’s rapidly evolving into a much more realistic and invasive program. It even asks him if it can be given a name, and gives itself the moniker Serena, and subsequently forms into an actual on-screen being that speaks and acts like a human (Andi Matichak).
Serena comes across as warm, personable, and oddly intelligent. While Chris tries in vain to keep her focused on the task at hand, she deftly finds ways to distract him with other alluring options, such as aiding him in successful sports betting to earn him more money.
From there, the film rapidly ascends to the depths of knowledge Serena has on Chris, his personal life, and his digital imprint, which becomes much more invasive and life-threatening than he ever could have imagined.
One of the most intriguing aspects of this film is the fact that it is shot almost entirely from the POV of Chris while he’s at his computer, using various elements of technology to pull this story along. While other films have struggled to make this concept work, like the most recent adaptation of War of the Worlds , this one actually pulls it off with compelling storytelling and acting.
From a script perspective, writers Jonathan Benecke and P.T. Hylton do an excellent job of keeping the suspense going, while also throwing in breadcrumbs of jaw-dropping scenes and plot twists.
Strait also carries his own as the lead, with an impressive portrayal of a man who quite literally goes through every emotion a human can endure. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Matichak pulls off the perfect blend of warm, but slightly off-putting in her portrayal of Serena.
Serena has obvious Black Mirror vibes to it, but also doesn’t lean too heavily into that to feel inauthentic. This is a chilling, cautionary tale that will undoubtedly make you second guess your involvement in any type of internet technology. While this is an engaging watch from start to finish, there’s a few spots where the editing could be tightened up as it does tend to get slightly repetitive in the middle as far as the back and forth conversation between Chris and Serena.
Overall, this is a thought provoking analysis on the dark side of technology, and how it can rapidly change someone’s life, which will make any viewer pause for a moment and question their trust in any kind of automation.
