VOD of the Dead - ROMI (2023)
The fear of technology and its implications for us as a people has always been part and parcel of the horror genre. From Frankenstein to The Lawnmower Man, the use of technology in horror is often not to celebrate its benefits, but to spread caution about what happens when these advancements go wrong. In today’s society, you don’t have to look far to find stories of how technology is being used for nefarious purposes. From drone bombing to identity theft, the increased prevalence and embeddedness of technology in our daily lives continue to inspire genre filmmakers to consider what happens if and when tech fails us. One of the most concerning technological trends is AI. While the term itself encompasses a whole range of models, methods, and approaches, we are already seeing how AI is being used to manipulate people through the use of deep fakes and disinformation. This is what makes the premise for Nevermine Films’ newest sci-fi horror film, ROMI, so compelling. Directed by Robert Cuffley and written by Susie Moloney, we take a look to see if AI is as scary as we think it is.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Forced to hide out at a state-of-the-art smart home, a young woman on the run is terrorized by ROMI, its sinister digital assistant.
HOW IS IT?
You don’t have to look far to find stories about how easy it is for hackers to take over smart devices in your home, car, and elsewhere, but what if malicious intent was a trait of AI? That is the question at the heart of “Romi”, the supernaturally adjacent sci-fi horror Tubi Original. While the idea of murderous smart devices isn’t new, most films fail to capitalize on the human stories that complement the technological terror. Movies like M3GAN attempted to portray the fragile and delicate balance between human connection and tech, but the focus was more on the antagonist AI than it was on the humans around it. Romi effectively dodges that bullet by making the star of the story the people while not overengineering the capabilities of the technology, all concluding in one of the best third acts of the year!
The core of our store revolves around Maddie, a young woman who made a fatal error that has forced her to hide out while her mother tries to help her out of the mess she’s in. To add insult to injury Maddie is talked down to by her mother and treated like a burden, mostly on account of her mom’s political aspirations for re-election. The isolation Maddie experiences while hiding out is mildly interrupted by both the owner of the home, Hertig, and Romi’s programmer, Barkley. There are many overarching themes in Romi, with one of them being the sense of shame, loneliness, and disappointment that some people feel as a response to how they are treated. It is clear that Maddie is not a “bad” person, but the fear of embarrassing her mother seems to take precedence over doing what is right. Many scenes play out where Maddie is trying to come to grips with the potential consequences of her actions, while her mother seems intent on brushing as much of this under the proverbial rug as possible. This is what makes Romi far more compelling than your average techno-thriller, it takes time to immerse you in the world that these characters live in while not drawing clear lines between good and bad, something that also impacts how Romi shows up and is characterized. Much like Maddie, Romi is not perfect, and neither are the people who created it. One of the standout parts of Romi is seeing that the AI is in fact, not as intelligent as we all would like to think. It harkens to the reality of the world we live in today, and how much of a failed promise AI and tech have been in some cases. One scene highlights this particularly well as Maddie is trying to order groceries, but can’t seem to get Romi to work as directed. It’s the same feeling you get when you’re trying to get a hold of a real person on a customer service line, and it flies in the face how AI is typically portrayed as this flawless and beyond intelligent entity when in reality, they are just as error-prone as people are.
Like Cuffley and Moloney’s last feature collaboration, Bright Hill Road (read our review here) the characters are flawed and that is what makes them human. Maddie is not without blame for her actions, which may not have been intentional but are deserving of consequence. This is a throughline throughout the entirety of the film, with each character carrying a burden that they cannot share with anyone else. Part of what keeps you engaged with Romi’s story is that as the runtime rolls on you continue to unwrap each character to understand their true intentions. The clever misdirection and methodical slow-drip of character development come to a head in the third act, which delivers in the best way possible. With slower-burning cinema like Romi, the risk being run by putting all eggs in the 3rd act basket is that you absolutely have to stick that landing, and Romi does in spades. Not only do you get a satisfying narrative conclusion, but you also get some really intense and brutal action that makes the last 20 minutes move like a roller coaster. Much of this is a credit to the cast who all deliver characterizations that are genuine and believable, but also the direction and sound design. Romi doesn’t have bombastic explosions or fierce gunfights, but the sound design does immerse you in this hyper-stylized tech landscape with an ambient score that compliments the meticulous suspense-building throughout. While some films run the risk of boring the viewer by deferring most of the action to the end, Cuffley is adept at knowing how to manage the mystery by focusing on the interpersonal while waiting for just the right time to turn the action up. There are some instances of story convolution throughout, and the overwhelming dourness of Maddie’s situation in totality can feel somewhat cruel, but all these elements work in service of the story and their inclusion does little to affect one’s enjoyment.
LAST RITES
ROMI is an AI-powered supernatural thriller that is rightfully more concerned with the humans in the story than the technology, and the result is a compelling and emotional film that illustrates the fallibility in all of us, human or machine.
THE GORY DETAILS
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Written By
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Where can you watch it?
ROMI is available to stream NOW on Tubi!
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