CONGNAITIVE
***
Directed by Tommy Savas.
Starring Piper Curda, Noel Fisher, Josh Zuckerman, Natasha Bahnam.
Science-Fiction, USA, 2025, 84 mins, Certificate TBC.
Reviewed as part of FrightFest 2025 - UK Premiere
As artificial intelligence speedily affects our lives in numerous ways, from work to social media to entertainment, there seems to be something mordantly ironic about the fact that science-fiction cinema has been warning us of this fact for years. The possibilities for the ever evolving software when it comes to cinema are numerous, from generating writing, actors and special effects. Numerous but extremely hollow, displaying the limits of an unwanted tool that has disastrous implications on a number of levels being foisted on a mostly unwary public by a gaggle of rich and clueless tech bros with no regard to the consequences.
Director Tommy Savas, and screenwriter Angie Simms, seems more than aware of this if their sharp and funny feature film COGNAITIVE is anything to go by. The titular AI system is being rushed to release by obnoxious CEO Ethan (Noel Fisher) despite the concerns of his staff led by Kaya (Piper Curda), a one time hacker hired by Ethan whose leadership in developing CognAItive (or Cog, as they affectionately then not so affectionately call it as the movie rolls on) soon leads to the realisation that the system may have evolved far more than previously thought and will stop at nothing to be unleashed into the world for its own nefarious purposes.
Set mainly within the confines of its office building, COGNAITIVE unfolds at a brisk pace, putting its cast of well drawn characters through the slasher mill as the malevolent system uses ever inventive ways to dispose of anyone who gets in its way. After a number of quietly impressive supporting turns over the years, Noel Fisher makes for an entertainingly reprehensible villain. He is easily the most entertaining character in the film bringing an air of desperation and self-justification to his actions that are reminiscent of some all too recognisable tech mavens who regularly grab the headlines. He is ably supported by Josh Zuckerman as a simpering programmer smitten with Kaya and Natasha Behnam who entertainingly calls the AI’s bluff in foul mouthed fashion.
Although small in scale, the film manages to zip by, never calling attention to its low budget. Savas has stated a love for 90’s cinema as one of the key influences here and it is very much apparent from the soundtrack of deep cuts of the decade's indie bands and nicely textured photography that matches up nicely with the film's tech edges and a brisk running time. Aside from one slight plot niggle that is never explained in a satisfying way this is a slice of throwback cinema that manages to feel contemporary. And for a film so deeply involved in the tech world and digital manipulation there is a real pleasure to be had in the practical effects work with blood being sprayed across the screen and characters in fine grisly fashion.
While it may not reach the doom laden heights that the likes of James Cameron showed us that our AI overlords could be capable of, COGNAITIVE is a fun, bloody and timely rebuke to the creative blankness of AI that will only be forced upon us more and more in the future in all walks of life. If you’re signing up to the resistance then this is a fun way to fire yourself up for the future that’s unfortunately just around the corner.
Iain MacLeod