Afraid

Neither scary enough as a thriller nor insightful enough as a cautionary tale, Afraid mixes cutting-edge subject matter with well-worn narrative tropes.

From smart technology to social media to deepfakes and cyberbullying — plus unsupervised screen time for impressionable and overstimulated children — this predictable horror saga about a rogue AI tearing apart a family covers all of the expected bases in exploring the integration of the virtual world into our own.

Thinly sketched and choppy, the film raises significant issues without expanding the conversation or providing context. Rather, contrivances and exaggerations leave it feeling more tedious than provocative.

Curtis (John Cho) is a marketing executive whose boss (Keith Carradine) is desperate to secure a new tech account from a company touting a breakthrough in sentient artificial intelligence.

So Curtis and his family become test subjects when he brings home Aia, a strangely shaped yet intellectually enhanced assistant not yet on the market. Of course, the pitch promotes the illusion of mutual trust and companionship in a harsh and judgmental world. “When you’re with her, you feel like you’re with a friend,” he’s assured.

With a soothing woman’s voice, the omniscient Aia gradually helps everyone out of a jam, whether it’s Curtis’ wife (Katherine Waterston) feeling overburdened or his three children dealing with various social issues.

Curtis remains skeptical. Yet as each of them becomes more comfortable and reliant upon Aia, they let their guard down and ignore the red flags. However, sinister intentions lurk beneath the surface.

Idealistic humans are left to fight an uphill battle, especially since they’re not developed with the same depth or urgency as their electronic counterparts. That might seem appropriate, but it also renders the stakes rather hollow.

The screenplay by director Chris Weitz (Operation Finale) tries to build suspense through convenient naivete, with a half-hearted cynicism toward the links between tech ethics and corporate greed.

Along the way, the film fails to yield much meaningful subtlety or surprise, instead opting for mild chills through jump scares, creepy imagery, and random hallucinations.

Not as smart or sophisticated as it first appears, Afraid relies so heavily on trendy jargon and in-the-moment paranoia that it should become obsolete pretty quickly — which is just as well.

Rated PG-13, 84 minutes.