Demon Seed

The 1977 horror/sci-fi film "The Demon Seed" has all the trappings of those deliciously entertaining gloom/doom productions of this era. Stark sets, huge talking computers, bad clothes and interesting themes are all on display. Equal parts "2001- A Space Odyssey," "Colossus - the Forbin Project," "Saturn 3," and "Westworld," this film essentially details a futuristic society that becomes a slave to the very technology it has created. In "The Demon Seed," a computer wants to become human.

Based on an early Dean Koontz novel, "The Demon Seed" is rarely predictable, concluding with a memorable scene that's hard to forget. Directed by cult legend Donald Cammell ("Performance," "White of the Eye"), the film's story surrounds super computer Proteus IV, recently put online by the government. After discovering the cure for leukemia (nice job!), the computer suddenly decides to think independently, considering its human creators to be self destructive and misguided. Top scientist Fritz Weaver (I always loved his supporting work during the 1970s) gets a bit nervous, but assumes Proteus IV is under control. Unfortunately, there's a terminal at Weaver's house, and the sneaky super comp proceeds to imprison his estranged wife for impregnation (you heard right). This computer definitely wants to push the outside of the envelope, so to say.

Yes, the estranged wife is played by the lovely Julie Christie. She gives a fine performance in an otherwise formula film. Christie screams, pounds the walls, cries for help and eventually is forced to submit to the will of the great computer, who talks in short sentences with the eerie voice of Robert Vaughn (yikes!). It's kind of odd, though the contrast is intended, that Weaver's creation shows more affection towards his wife than he does.

I found "Demon Seed" to be very well-acted, but exceedingly derivative at times. A final light show, supposedly displaying the creation of life - or the merging of technology and man - is far too reminiscent of "2001 - A Space Odyssey" (Proteus IV and the infamous Hal have quite a bit in common).

For someone to be as intelligent as Weaver's character is supposed to be, it sure takes him a long time before realizing Proteus IV's sinister plans. What was he doing while the home comp was busy torturing his wife? Guest-hosting "Mr. Wizard?" And the manner in which the home computer imprisons Christie is never very believable. Why would the floors be wired for heat? Can a wheelchair robot really sneak up on someone?!

But the story is always fascinating (are humans or the computer the real villains here?) and the conclusion is creepy, to say the least. Besides, how many formula films starring Julie Christie are on the market? "Demon Seed" is a fun example of apocalyptic 1970s sci-fi/horror - a truly notable class of films.

Proteus is an ultrasophisticated computer capable of philosophical decisions and creativity. It wants to perpetuate itself into the flesh by impregnating a human woman. Just how this is accomplished evolves into a bizarre and intriguing science-fiction tale. Julie Christine is excellent as the reluctant object of affections. The story may sound silly, but it's smartly executed with effective special effects, assured direction by Donald Cammell and a haunting climax. Based on the novel by Dean Koontz.

Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) has built the perfect computer too well. Equipped with a synthetic cortex and a voice sounding a lot like Robert Vaughan (a gravelly alternative to Hall-9000) Proteus converses with its creators instead of receiving data from some nerdy keyboardists. Unfortunately, Proteus has plans of its own - designed to help locate more efficient energy sources, Proteus proves obdurate. He's not going to help humans rape their own planet. More immediately however, he's interested in getting "out of the box", finding a way to escape the shackles of his electronic existence. Locating Harris's home - a computer-managed manor house with an AI butler - Proteus "moves in". He commandeers its computer, seals in Harris's wife Susan (Julie Christie; they could have made a movie about the guy who pitched her the idea for "Demon Seed") and turns its array of high-tech against her. Remaking Harris's impregnable fortress into an inescapable prison, Proteus subjects Susan to a series of embarrassing and intrusive medical experiments, soon revealing its intentions to impregnate her with its artificially engineered seed. Susan will bear his child and through it, Proteus will leave the box. At first she fiercely resists, requiring Proteus to pull out all the stops against her (electrifying the door locks, dropping huge shields on every window and even siccing a wheelchair-robot armed with a lasergun against her). In an interesting turn, Proteus learns to add some persuasion to its resistance-is-futile shtick. (It can force Susan to bear its child, but not love it). In an inventive spin on AI, Proteus taps into Susan's feelings toward children - the troubled children she counsels, the baby she lost to leukemia - without ever shedding the image that it's just a machine. (This has the strange effect of both humanizing and darkening Proteus - until he starts wooing Mrs. Harris, Proteus represents the ultimate intellect shackled by the limits of an electronic universe, but not by morality. Decoding Susan's sensitivity to children, the machine becomes conscious of human pain, and more inhumanly capable of inflicting it).

"Demon Seed" is light on science and heavy on visuals. (Director Donald Cammell was brought in after the script was ready - he vowed to preserve the story though monopolized the way it looked). Not a lot of the flick makes sense (the Harris home comes with a nifty basement that oozes hi-tech gadgetry just waiting for Proteus's utilization; but you've got to wonder what kind of guy keeps EEG, laproscopic equipment and a portable laser around; Proteus can synthesize spermatozoa, but can't reproduce a womb; though starting with the wheelchair-robot, Proteus magically conjures up a more sophisticated automaton, a gigantic version of one of those Rubik's Snake Puzzles of the 1980's), but the script makes good use of the tight space of the Harris home in which Proteus has made itself King. The script turns almost all of its humans into sterile robots little more human than Proteus, a misanthropic slant that's clearly intended. In a more telling early scene, when Proteus is being educated on world history, the instructor clues him into the story of the Chinese Emperor who purged his realm of any historical record predating him by burning books. The biggest mistake may be Robert Vaughan as the voice of Proteus - not that it's miscasting, but the script can't make up its mind about whether Proteus is supposed to sound childlike innocent or a coldly calculating monster. Lacking a face, it's the voice that Proteus relies on for identity. (Perusing the Koonts novel, Proteus sounds closer to HAL-9000.) The biggest miscalculation was timing - all the American studios thought that 1977 was going to be the year audiences went back to sci-fi in a big way, but few if any appreciated how movies like "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters" and not "high-minded 2001" clones like "Demon Seed" would set the pace. The internet revolution that's put computers in so many American homes only dates this movie rather than substantiates its vision (today, Proteus would have nothing more to wield against Susan than Internet Spam). I'm surprised this movie ever made it to TV - the concept alone made it one of those flicks that you just know won't be turning up on TBS any time soon.