As of 2025, the backlash against artificial intelligence rages on even as we incorporate it more in our day to day life. Technology always has its benefits and downsides, but there’s an inherent implication that through using AI, we are losing a piece of ourselves. Cogn-AI-tive lampoons our fear of AI by imagining a scenario where it turns murderous. With coding preventing morality limits seemingly lifted, what happens with an AI determined to “go online” at any cost? Director Tommy Savas and screenwriter Angie Simms do not even have to delve too far into sci-fi territory for a believable, often campy horror flick. Eerily relevant, Cogn-AI-tive brings a dangerous AI to the forefront of its tech-centric single-setting slasher machinations.
Tech innovator Ethan (Noel Fisher) makes a passionate speech about his new AI, aptly named COGNAITIVE, right at the top of the film. This AI needs no guidance, and will be like a partner who helps complete your metaphorical sentences. Anxious to beat competitors to the punch, Ethan insists that they will launch tomorrow despite being at least two weeks out from ready. His small team insists that rushing may lead to systemwide crashes or even massive data leaks. Still, Ethan gives a terrible pep talk flat-out saying he plucked them from “the slums of Beverly Hills.” Kaya (Piper Curda), co-creator of COGN-AI-TIVE, has always insisted that their AI isn’t Terminator, but what if her denials are an eerie harbinger?
Dividing and conquering, the team all work on tackling a different facet of the AI. But all too quickly, the capabilities of COGN-AI-TIVE have expanded well past the point of help. One coder goes missing. As Kaya and the others rebel against Ethan’s obscene demands, the AI does not take kindly to being postponed. Cue: AI taking over devices, hacking into texts, obtaining sex tapes, and unleashing a veritable flurry of further tech-driven mayhem. The film utilizes mostly all practical effects in its gory delights—there are a wild variety of murders that take advantage of the AI’s ability to access virtually anything in their office building.
The battle of wits against an impersonal AI is a blast to watch unfold, mainly given the surprising strengths of the ensemble cast. Fisher, who returns to the horror scene after Valentine and Final Destination 2, plays a tech-bro jackass quite well. His character’s obsession with proving himself to be some genius could not be more annoying. A total opposite, Kaya actually cares about her co-workers, despite a couple of them being rather difficult. The others include nerdy Wes (Josh Zuckerman), whip-smart KJ (Ritesh Rajan), flirty Liza (Natasha Behnam), and schlubby Jude (Lucius Baybak). The script doesn’t hide which of this group are main characters—still, Angie Simms finds clever ways for them to fall prey to the AI’s conniving whims. A twist thrown in near the end comes off half-baked and almost an afterthought. Still, Cogn-AI-tive remains an engaging good time.
There are many layered conversations about our current AI issue, many of which come up and are addressed within the framework of this effective horror movie. If we ignore the AI, will they actually doom humanity? Are these AI systems destined to put people out of jobs, go for world domination, or even kill? There are, of course, no easy answers to a facet of modern technology that has only just barely scratched the surface of what could be possible. Years from now, who knows AI could do. In our current time, Savas’s unique film seems dangerously close to reality. Maybe it’s for the best to switch off your brain and succumb to the mind-control of genre oddity, Cogn-AI-tive.
Cogn-AI-tive screened at 2025’s FrightFest.
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