Director: Rusty Nixon
Writer: James Clayton, Rusty Nixon (Screenplay) Evan Tylor (Story)
Starring: Debs Howard, Philip Granger, Sam Robert Muik, Havana Guppy, Donnie Hay, Veronica Hampson
Plot: A seventeen year old girl forms a co-dependent relationship with an artificial intelligence on her phone and goes on a murderous rampage.
Tagline – Evil has a new friend
Runtime: 1 Hour 17 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Very Odd Slasher
Story: A.M.I. starts as we meet school student Cassie (Howard) who is still grieving the loss of her mother, while her boyfriend Liam (Muik) doesn’t make too much time for her. Her father hasn’t taken long before trying to find somebody else, taking advantage of younger women, while Cassie’s friends seem to enjoy her house over her company.
When Cassie starts feeling lonelier than ever, she turns to an artificial intelligence on her phone called AMEE for comfort, even sounding like her mother. When the AMEE starts learning about Cassie’s life, she starts to make her fight back against the people that have wronged her, turning this quiet young lady into a killing machine.
Thoughts on A.M.I.
Characters – Cassie is a high school student that has been through a traumatic experience, being involved in a car crash that killed her mother, while others in her life have moved on, she still suffers daily, her boyfriend doesn’t give her time and always makes excuses, while her closest friends are more interested in her lifestyle and boyfriend than her. Cassie turns to an AI system on her phone, that starts guiding her on a killing spree against everyone that has done her wrong. Greg is Cassie’s father that has neglected her after her mother’s death drinking and trying to seduce younger women including one of Cassie’s friends. Liam is the asshole boyfriend that is more interested in a career in American football and sleeping around over being caring towards his own girlfriend, he is one of the most unsupportive people you will ever see in a film. Ruby and Sarah are the best friends that are not supportive in any way more interested in her boyfriend than her friendship.
Performances – Debs Howard in the leading role is very interesting to watch, she has the image of a popular student, only holds the psychotic side back. Sam Robert Muik does give us one of the most unlikable characters of the year. Nobody else really gets any screen time to do much.
Story – The story here follows a teenager girl that is struggling with her mother’s death only to turn to her phone artificial intelligence for a friend, which only turns her into a psychotic killer, taking out revenge on the people that are wronging her in life. This story could easily be one that could have addressed the real life problems Cassie would be experiencing with loss, but instead it just decides to show us that she has no friends or family that want to help her in anyway, despite the fact they should be stood next to her helping her. The speed of which she turns to the phone for friendship is worrying quick and how quickly she starts to kill, though it does have a glancing reference to her head injury, which could have been made more of a point about.
Horror – The horror side of the film does follow Cassie on her slasher style killing spree, it isn’t scary and the kills happen way to quickly to have any tension.
Settings – The film does use the everyday settings which shows how somebody could go lose it and go on a spree.
Special Effects – The effects are used to show injuries, while mostly are off camera too, they don’t need to show us anything if we are honesty.
Scene of the Movie – The slip and slide.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – In one scene Sarah is asked if she wants to call her mother, less than 10 minutes later, she talks about living alone in an apartment.
Final Thoughts – This is an odd little slasher that does everything to make you support the killer over anybody in their life and does almost hit comical with the kills.
Overall: Fun little slasher.
