Is it Wall-E? Is it Short Circuit? No, It's Really Not.

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:28:18 PDT

One of the weirdest evil robots of the 1970s is in the movie Demon Seed, and he's referred to in this original preview as "a sensually self-programmed non-being." This A.I., who kind of looks like cuddly pal Wall-E in this picture, imprisons Julie Christie in her high tech house and rapes her so that she'll bear his cyber-baby. There are a lot of psychedelic robo-rape scenes, as well as weird psychological turmoil, in this tale of an A.I. named Proteus who decides to get it on with his creator's wife. Even if she doesn't want to. If you are gacked out by all the cooing over Wall-E this weekend, Demon Seed is the perfect antidote. [Demon Seed via IMDB]

Must See: Demonseed

Annalee Newitz — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:56:19 PDT

Must-see movies are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale.

Title: Demonseed
Date: 1977

Vitals: Grumpy AI Proteus is sick of being locked inside a mainframe and asked to solve boring problems like "world peace" and "economic development." So he breaks into the security system of his creator's house, imprisons his wife (Christie), and proceeds to rape her so that she'll become pregnant with the first-ever human/machine hybrid creature.

Famous names: Julie Christie

Crunchy goodness: 2

Ripoff: Fans of the 2000s Battlestar Galactica series will recognize a recurring theme of that show: like Proteus, the Cylon yearn to make hybrid babies with humans.

Sight you'll never unsee: AI Proteus having "sex" with Julie Christie's character via robot-operated restraints, a syringe, and a bunch of swirly digital blobs that look like a screensaver.

Life lesson: Don't run your evil AI on the same network with your house security system, you idiot.

Demonseed Review at Moria

io9: julie christie

Is it Wall-E? Is it Short Circuit? No, It's Really Not.

Must See: Demonseed