Mouth Agape At The Robot Rape

Yet another infamous science fiction / horror film I've not seen until now is 1977's Demon Seed. I say infamous as it's the one where Julie Christie gets raped by a robot. How lovely. But at least it's got a bit of brains and style behind it which stops it from being dragged down to pure sexploitation levels of depravity. Computer Boffin Fritz Weaver invents the worlds first super intelligent Artificial Intelligence, which in true to form fashion, gets thoughts of its own and decides to trap Weaver's ex-wife, the classy Ms Christie, in her own computer run homestead.

So far so good. The plot's set up economically, the production a high quality affair and there's lots of subtext set up about the differences between psychologically flawed people and super-rational computers. Then it all stars going a bit crazy. Slowly at first, as the A.I., Proteus IV, voiced by a menacing Robert Vaughn (surely they could have programmed something a little more cheery)restricts Christies movements and outlines it's cunning plan; to have a baby with her. Even by today's standards of nanobots and genetic science it's a bonkers concept, and the naive 70's setting makes the idea even more extreme.

Christie's motivations don't always seem logical (although, to be fair, she has been a little brainwashed), Proteus' physical forms are ill designed...either a wacky, animated tetrahedron-robot thing...or a wheelchair with a roving metal arm attached; either too advanced or too primitive to do the task at hand.

But it's an interesting story with strong ideas... What is it to be a living thing? Is it wrong for Proteus to want to procreate as all living things do, or survive in some part through it's offspring? There's also an intriguing religious undercurrent as Christie is immaculately impregnated by a superior being, and she'll spawn a child that will dominate society...Proteus being an almost sci-fi anti-Christ. Disappointingly it ends abruptly just as it's getting interesting (just as the similarly themed Colossus: The Forbin Project does). If ever a Dean R Koontz story needed a follow up it's this one. Just less robo-rape please.