Review of Demon Seed (1977) by Russell B — 15 Feb 2008

This film seems to get something of a mixed reception but I absolutely loved it. One of these brilliant 'contained' movies from the mid 70s where someone is put through their paces by some form of entrapment, here being a giant robotic brain called proteus tapping into a secuity system.

The film can be seen as mysoginistic and is uncomfortable viewing at times but I think thats part of what makes it work - its the whole point, with the man made contraptions icy manipulation of Christies character mirroring the emotional detachment of its human creator.

As the story unfolds, the flipside of the coin - watching the inventor work on whats gone wrong with the robot brain felt light but christies battle with proteus was compelling enough for it to not really matter.

The film needs you to want to like it. There is constant voice over from the computer brain spelling out what cant really be done in pictures (leaps of faith) and quite alot of gobbledegook sci-fi explainatory dialogue to get through plot points, but for some reason I just didnt mind.

Also, and far more simply, I could watch Julie Christie from the 70s for days without getting bored...loved it.