Horror and science fiction films are rife with technology fears. From rogue AIs to identity theft to sentient cloud networks, these movies elucidate every possible way human advancements transform into human nightmares.
While some of these films depict hair-raising circumstances and visualize the terrifying consequences of computational innovations in compelling ways, others allude to a future full of comical and second-rate killer machines. This list pays tribute to movies in the latter category, films so bad they're good. The hi-tech terrors explored in the genre features below will keep you glued to the screen if only to laugh at their ridiculous representations of evil hardware.
Demon Seed (1977)
Adapted from a Dean Koontz novel, Demon Seed tells the story of a demonic AI computer that imprisons a woman played by Julie Christie. The AI's goal, it seems, is to impregnate the woman, Susan, so that its consciousness can live on in a human form.
The computer, Proteus, is designed by a doctor to help with curing diseases and ailments, but it's so powerful it manages to connect itself into a larger network, construct its own laboratory, and control other mechanical devices. This allows Proteus to develop robotic extensions of itself, capture Susan, and spread its demon seed.
The Dungeonmaster (1984)
Jeffrey Byron plays Paul, a computer programmer who seems to love his sentient computer, X-CaliBR8, more than his girlfriend Gwen. Paul has bestowed a female voice upon X-CaliBR8, and he uses a brain-to-computer interface to interact with his beloved device.
Paul's dedication to Gwen and X-CaliBR8's usefulness are both put to the test when a demonic sorcerer names Mestema sucks them into his realm. He forces Paul to work his way through a series of obstacles in order to save Gwen from spending eternity with Mestema. Fortunately, Paul has a portable wristwatch version of X-CaliBR8 to help him fight monsters and shoot lasers. Can your Apple Watch do that?
Freejack (1992)
Freejack is a misguided, overly complicated science fiction movie that tries to be too many things at once: a social satire, a time travel thriller, a virtual reality cautionary tale, and a Rolling Stones music video. That's right: Mick Jagger stars in this film as a mercenary who plans to keep himself alive by transporting Emilio Estevez's character, Furlong, from 1991 to 2009 using a time travel device. The mercenary's goal: to use Furlong's body as a substitute for his own.
Furlong escapes, only to find his form is desired by another: Anthony Hopkins's character, Ian McCandless. McCandless is a powerful executive, preserved his mind in a VR computer system known as the Spiritual Switchboard, and he hopes to transfer it to Furlong's much younger body. In the midst of this nonsense exists a love story between Furlong and his estranged girlfriend played by Rene Russo.
Airplaine II: The Sequel (1982)
"Analysis confirmed. All systems compute positive." The ROK 9000 in Airplane II: The Sequel is a spoof of 2001: A Space Odyssey's iconic evil artificial intelligence system HAL 9000. Airplane II's events unravel in the near future where the moon has been colonized, and commercial space shuttles travel there from Earth.
What should be a routine flight turns into a disaster after the ROK short circuits, causing it to go ballistic and send the passengers on a death mission to the Sun. Fortunately, Ted and Elaine from the original Airplane! are on board to save the day.
The Invisible Boy (1957)
This unofficial sequel to 1956's science fiction classic Forbidden Planet also features Robby the Robot, but it pales in comparison to its predecessor. In the movie, a lonely 10-year-old boy named Timmie manages to reassemble a robot his scientist father disregarded. Desperate for a friend, Timmie gets on swimmingly with the newly revived mechanical Robby.
However, when Timmie's parents express disapproval for their son's friend, Robby and the tyke employ the help of a supercomputer to make Timmie invisible so they can play together in peace. Unfortunately, the supercomputer is evil and plans to yield its power over humanity by hacking into a military satellite. Timmie and Robby are stuck in the middle of its nefarious plot.
Universal Soldier: The Return (1999)
A sequel to a 1992 Jean-Claude Van Damme action flick, The Return takes government bureaucracy to the next level. Van Damme plays Luc Deveraux, a trained soldier who works for the U.S. government, developing AI soldiers designed to replace human ones.
Deveraux discovers his program UniSol will be defunded due to budget cuts. While he accepts his program's fate, the AI computer system responsible for maintaining the new soldiers, S.E.T.H., doesn't like the idea of being shut off permanently. With the help of an inside man, S.E.T.H. deploys all the new UniSols to wage war against the government. In the meantime, Deveraux works with a hacker named Squid to cut S.E.T.H.'s mission short.
Gog (1954)
Marketed as a 3-D cinematic experience, Gog combines Cold War paranoia and computer mayhem. In a top-secret government facility deep in the New Mexico desert, scientists and researchers are dying under mysterious circumstances. Could the facility's advanced computer system N.O.V.A.C. be responsible for all the deadly malfunctions?
Dr. David Sheppard is sent to the lab to investigate, and he's led to believe a clandestinely installed satellite in the computer's mainframe is being controlled remotely by evildoers. Worse yet, two robots, Gog and Magog, connected to N.O.V.A.C. and have found their way into the facility's nuclear reactor control room.
Evilspeak (1987)
Revenge of the Nerds for Satanic computer programmers, Evilspeak stars Clint Howard as a bullied military academy cadet named Stanley Coopersmith. Coopersmith stumbles upon a book of old demonic incantations in the cellar of an old church, and he decides to use his programming knowledge to translate the text through his computer.
Needless to say, Coopersmith soon uses his skills to enact demonic revenge against his enemies. His computer develops a life of its own, guiding the cadet through ritual after ritual.
Critters 4 (1992)
Angela is the name of the problematic computer system in the fourth installment of the Critters franchise. Angela sustains a deep space station in 2045, where the crew of the salvage ship RSS Tesla travels in order to strike a deal regarding a large pod it stumbled upon.
The computer is dealing with some serious malfunctions, and it will only respond appropriately when given the exact opposite orders. To make matters worse, it turns out the pod contains two Critter eggs. After a greedy crew member opens the pod, the eponymous space vermin do what they do best: murder and reproduce.
Nightmare Weekend (1986)
A professor invents a sentient computer he hopes will improve society by altering behavior for the better, but when the machine is unleashed upon the world, things don't go as planned. The professor's mad assistant gets ahold of the computer, aware it has sinister side effects on its subjects, and she turns it into a mind-warping system for creating killers.
In order to make sure her updates work, the professor's assistant lures three college girls and a few tag-along men to the home for a weekend. Sex, carnage, and '80s computer graphics ensue.