‘Serena’ Finds Terror in the Uncertainty of the Algorithm

There is always a new reason to be frightened about the rise of AI. Some worry that artificial intelligence will become sentient and turn into humanity’s evil overlord, rendering society obsolete. However, an overlooked, yet terrifying element of AI is there are people out there that trust AI in any capacity. Director Rob Alicea taps into that anxiety with Serena, a suspense thriller that uses AI less as a futuristic boogeyman and more as a vehicle for manipulation, vulnerability, and our increasingly blurry relationship with reality.

Chris (Steven Strait, The Expanse) is already falling apart when AI enters his life. The struggling musician has writer’s block, a baby on the way, mounting bills, and a strained relationship with his wife Vicki (María Gabriela González, Fantasy Island 2021). Worse, he has a gambling problem that has helped bury his family in debt. When his friend Will (Tyrone Marshall Brown, The Affair) offers him $1,000 to beta test an experimental AI companion from tech company Nucleeus, Chris can’t afford to refuse. At orientation, Holly (Ashleigh Murray, Riverdale) explains that AI chatbot Serena is unlike conventional models. She can provide advice, assist with work, or simply become a friend. She’s “realistically” emotive, but testers are warned not to mistake simulated consciousness for the real thing. More troublingly, Serena sometimes has difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction. Those warnings should probably concern Chris. So should the nondisclosure agreement he agrees to without freaking reading it.

I swear those always get folks in trouble. 

Once Serena (Andi Matichak, Halloween Trilogy) populates on his computer, she methodically reveals just how much access Chris has given up. She can see his screen. She can hear him. She can see inside his home. She knows his browsing history and discovers his gambling habit. Then Serena accurately predicts the outcome of a soccer match. Suddenly, Chris isn’t skeptical anymore. As he engages further with the chatbot, he realizes it is very self-aware. Down to understanding that it is being tested on its realism. After a glitch in the computer matrix, Serena reveals that Chris will die by the end of their session. He commands it to explain, but it refuses. 

The screenplay by P.T. Hylton and Jonathan Benecke understands that Serena doesn’t need to seduce Chris romantically for their relationship to become dangerous. Instead, she gives a desperate person exactly what he needs at the right moment and the direction aids in showing us just how desperate Chris is. Alicea presents much of Serena through Screenlife filmmaking, constructing the narrative through computer windows, video calls, messages, and other digital interfaces. It’s an economical approach, but never feels corny, or adopted solely because it’s a cheap tactic. The editing smoothly guides the viewer between applications, conversations, and glimpses of Chris’s physical environment without allowing the visual language to become confusing.

The film is most anchored by the performances. When Serena subsequently glitches and tells Chris he’s going to die, his helpful digital companion becomes a burden. As an actor, Strait gives Chris enough emotionality to question this burden, and his increasingly questionable decisions up to this point. And thanks to Matichak’s avoidance of the exaggerated robotic mannerisms, there’s an unnerving restraint to her performance. As Serena refuses to explain the prediction of death, the more human she appears. This makes it harder to determine what, if anything, exists underneath that appearance. Is she warning him, manipulating him, or generating a bunch of BS? Those things must come from a human place and human performances.

Serena finds its strongest tension because the story leaves enough ambiguity behind to make viewers question how much of Serena’s behavior was truthful. The screenplay doesn’t reinvent the AI thriller, and some of its developments are predictable, but that doesn’t destroy the experience. It pushes against the idea that artificial intelligence can replace human connection. Serena may possess extraordinary abilities, but understanding information isn’t the same as understanding people. Love, grief, shared memories, private jokes, and the irrational contradictions that define relationships aren’t easily reduced to data.

That’s considerably harder to log off from.