It is a tale as old as time, when a man, struggles to cope with day-to-day life, taking care of his family while his wife is sick, he seeks out help. In this case, he buys a robot which ends up malfunctioning and terrorising said man’s family including his sick wife. Humanised robots are by far not a new concept, and amongst the countless stories out there, Subservience doesn’t try to reinvent the AI is dangerous narrative but merely tells us a story which we have seen before.
When construction foreman Nick’s wife Maggie falls suddenly and gravely ill, he decides to buy a domestic AI to help around the house. But soon Nick is overwhelmed with troubles at work and possibility he may lose his wife and turns to Alice, the AI gynoid, for support. Alice in turn develops a strange obsessive attachment to her owner and starts to see his own family as a hindrance to his life.
Narrowing down the scope of the story and world it is set in, makes the sci-fi elements of the story almost redundant. With ‘sparks’ as they are so tenderly called, taking nearly all service jobs and even construction work, there is very little focus or even discussion around the impact of having robots do everything for us. The story is about Nick, his family and Alice, and how the latter takes loyalty to the extreme. This could have been an interesting take on AI but unfortunately, we’re left with basic dialogue, strained acting and, what feels like, repetition of scenes. Very little happens apart from Alice somehow becoming incredibly powerful and Maggie returning home from the hospital. There is little to no build-up but one messy climax.
The saving grace in all this basic chaos, is Megan Fox as Alice the AI gynoid. Not only does Fox completely fit the role as a perfect robot but she seems to really relish playing this character. Both at ease playing a robot which gains sentience and coming across like she could do this in her sleep, Fox creates menace the minute she steps into the family’s house. This spark of excitement and dread is really what keeps this film going. Apart from Alice, there to cause and fix problems, mostly for Nick, the scenes that do not include her feel flat and ironically, lifeless.
Subservience is not a fresh take on the subject of how AI could be dangerous, nor does it boast anything spectacular narratively. With one performance that entertains and chills you to the bone, there isn’t much to recommend this bare bones sci-fi thriller.
Subservience will be available on EST from 13th September and TVOD from 20th September
