Cloud-based androids are the future in Aaron Mirtes’s sci-fi horror, The Alpha Test, a robots-gone-rogue flick whose plotline you can see from a mile away yet still has surprising kills and darkly comedic thrills along the way. Produced by High Octane films, distributors of recent sci-fi and horror indies such as Fighting The Sky and Winterskin, writer/director/producer Aaron Mirtes’ film, The Alpha Test, will be released to digital platforms and DVD on March 10th.

The Alpha Test follows a family whose son wins a home-aide android known as Alpha. With the mother vehemently anti-technology due to a personal loss and the absentminded father constantly harassing and ordering Alpha around, Alpha finds relief in a budding friendship with their teenage daughter. After the two bond over trashy teen shows and discussing their own unhappy existences, they decide to start standing up for themselves. The family soon learns a lesson in treating others fairly, as Alpha’s new directive of self-respect is taken to truly violent levels of revenge.

The Alpha Test does a good job of showing a plausible future of human-robot relations. It is not reinventing the wheel with the familiar premise of a mistreated android becoming vengeful when films like A.I. (2001) and Ex Machina already set a clear standard. The Alpha Test tries to standout by dosing its story in blood, and it is this level of robot-violence that provides commentary on human-violence. As the androids learn from humans — as well as each other, à la Her (2013) — about revenge and standing up for one’s self, it invites self-reflection seeing our behavior mirrored in something that man created — like a child we cannot control. Also, The Alpha Test has a very current feeling with its question about rights and fair treatment of living species that are not human.

My only problem with The Alpha Test is that it has leaps in logic, something that feels like lazy writing when the plotline feels all too convenient and/or unnatural. The main leap is that Mirtes’ initial setup is that Alpha will misconstrue directives and subsequently carry out her revenge, a plotline that would be understandable. Instead, Alpha is autonomous and too much like a human, being that she lies without learning to lie, decides when and who to take commands from, and deceives without being taught to do so. The film doesn’t quite follow AI logic, and so her vengeful actions fall through this plothole. Also, though the design for Alpha looks cool, her rubber mask reveals the film’s low budget and yet another leap in logic. Alpha is marketed as luxury-tech in a near-feature, and it is hard to believe that a company, fictional or not, would release an android whose look is so obviously off-putting. Despite some minor missteps, The Alpha Test offers a fresh foray into robo-thrillers and introspective commentary on human/android development.

The Alpha Test was something like a horror version of Disney’s Smart House that ends in a robot uprising. Needless to say, it had a tried and true recipe for success, but because it could only afford low-budget ingredients such as made-for-TV acting and cheap costuming, it feels amateur even on the parts where it shines, such as its intense kills. The movie is worth a watch for those intense scenes, and for its keen sense for capturing the uncanniness and the horror of these creations reflecting the worst parts of man — violence and revenge. The familiar premise should resonate with lovers of killer-robot films, and its biting social commentary and much-needed gore provide horror to the film. 

MOVIE RATING — 6 out of 10 ☠️