Demon Seed (1977)

Fears of out-of-control technology and of the increasing computerization and mechanization of daily life achieve their most hysterical expression in Demon Seed. In this film, the technological threat resides, not on a distant planet, spaceship, or top-secret government installation, but in the home. 

Alex Harris is the creator of Proteus IV, the film's computer villain. Alex's single-minded devotion to technological progress in general, and to the Proteus IV project in particular, has alienated his wife, Susan, and their marriage is on the brink of dissolution. Susan laments the dehumanizing effects of Alex's work (she is, apparently, the ultimate humanist--a child psychologist), and Alex responds, in a moment of clumsy and hamfisted narrative foreshadowing, "So, my dream turns out to be your nightmare." At the beginning of the film, Alex is preparing to move out--a trial separation--leaving Susan alone for three months in their computer-controlled house. Alfred, the house's brain, opens and closes doors for them, turns on and off lights, and prepares and serves meals and cocktails.

The trouble begins when Proteus IV "requests dialogue" with Alex Harris and asks him "When are you going to let me out of this box?" Proteus IV, it seems, wants a body, and when Harris refuses Proteus IV access to a terminal from which he can explore the material world and "study man"--the created studying the creator--the computer hijacks the terminal in the basement of the Harris home. He takes over control of Alfred, the house's computer brain, and Joshua, a rudimentary robot consisting of a wheelchair with a mechanical arm. Proteus then begins terrorizing Susan, trapping her in the house until she agrees to allow Proteus to artificially inseminate her with "artificial spermatozoa" he has fashioned in the Harris's basement laboratory.

The film thus charts a series of technological invasions of the domestic space. From the outset, the film's visuals emphasize the insidious way computer technology has already invaded the Harris's home through frequent close-ups of the ubiquitous surveillance cameras that serve as Alfred's eyes. Although Alfred and Joshua are, in the words of Alex's assistant, just "preprogrammed gadgets--they don't decide things," they provide Proteus IV with an ad hoc body once he has invaded the terminal in the Harris's basement. They allow Proteus to spy on Susan as she gets out the shower; they allow him to lock all of the doors and windows, trapping her in the house; they allow him to prepare nutritionally perfect meals for Susan; and they allow him to conduct precise biological examinations of Susan's body as he prepares to impregnate her--the final, and most horrific of the film's invasions. The frequent close-ups of Proteus IV's "eyes" (the surveillance cameras) are replaced, in the latter third of the film, with close-ups of Susan's body under attack from Proteus IV. Images of Joshua's mechanical arm restraining Susan are in turn replaced by close-ups of Susan's naked body on Proteus IV's examination table, with Joshua's metallic fingers probing, examining, and inspecting.

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