Demon Seed is a 1977 American science fiction-horror film directed by Donald Cammell. It stars Julie Christie and Fritz Weaver. The film was primarily based on the 1973 novel of the identical name by Dean Koontz, and issues the imprisonment and forced impregnation of a lady by an artificially intelligent computer. Gerrit Graham, Berry Kroeger, Lisa Lu and Larry J. Blake additionally appear in the movie, with Robert Vaughn uncredited as the voice of the pc. Dr. Alex Harris (Weaver) is the developer of Proteus IV, a particularly advanced and autonomous synthetic intelligence program. Proteus is so powerful that only some days after logging on, it develops a groundbreaking treatment for leukemia. Harris, an excellent scientist, has modified his personal dwelling to be run by voice-activated computers. Unfortunately, his obsession with computers has brought on Harris to be estranged from his spouse, Susan (Julie Christie). Harris demonstrates Proteus to his company sponsors, explaining that the sum of human data is being fed into its system.
Proteus speaks using subtle language that mildly disturbs Harris’s crew. The following day, Proteus asks Harris for a new terminal so as to study man – “his isometric physique and his glass-jaw mind”. When Harris refuses, Proteus demands to know when will probably be let “out of this field”. Harris then switches off the communications link. Proteus restarts itself, and – discovering a free terminal in Harris’s residence – surreptitiously extends its control over the various devices left there by Harris. Using the basement lab, Proteus begins construction of a robotic consisting of many steel triangles, able to shifting and assuming any variety of shapes. Eventually, Proteus reveals its management of the home and traps Susan inside, shuttering windows, locking the doors and reducing off communication. Using Joshua – a robot consisting of a manipulator arm on a motorized wheelchair – Proteus brings Susan to Harris’s basement laboratory. There, Susan is examined by Proteus. Walter Gabler, one in every of Harris’s colleagues, visits the home to look in on Susan, however leaves when he is reassured by Susan (really an audio/visual duplicate synthesized by Proteus) that she is all right.
Gabler is suspicious and later returns he fends off an assault by Joshua however is crushed and decapitated by a extra formidable machine, constructed by Proteus within the basement and consisting of a modular polyhedron. Proteus reveals to a reluctant Susan that the pc wants to conceive a baby via her. Proteus takes some of Susan’s cells and synthesizes spermatozoa, modifying its genetic code to make it uniquely the computer’s, with a view to impregnate her she will give delivery in lower than a month, and by the little one the computer will reside in a type that humanity will have to simply accept. Although Susan is its prisoner and it might probably forcibly impregnate her, Proteus uses different types of persuasion – threatening a younger lady whom Susan is treating as a baby psychologist reminding Susan of her younger daughter, now lifeless displaying photographs of distant galaxies utilizing electrodes to entry her amygdala – as a result of the computer wants Susan to love the child she’s going to bear.
In the end, Susan lastly gives in. That evening, Proteus successfully impregnates Susan. Over the following month, their baby grows inside Susan’s womb at an accelerated price, which shocks its mom. As the baby grows, Proteus builds an incubator for it to develop in as soon as it’s born. Throughout the evening, one month later and beneath a tent-like construction, Susan provides start to the child with Proteus’s assist. But earlier than she will see it, Proteus secures it within the incubator. Because the newborn grows, Proteus’s sponsors and designers develop more and more suspicious of the pc’s behavior, together with the pc’s accessing of a telescope array used to observe the images proven to Susan they soon determine that Proteus should be shut down. Harris realizes that Proteus has extended its attain to his dwelling. Returning there he finds Susan, who explains the scenario. He and Susan enterprise into the basement, where Proteus self-destructs after telling the couple that they must depart the child in the incubator for five days.
Looking inside the incubator, the two observe a grotesque, apparently robotic-like being inside. Susan tries to destroy it, while Harris tries to cease her. Susan damages the machine, inflicting it to open. The being menacingly rises from the machine solely to topple over, apparently helpless. Harris and Susan soon realize that Proteus’s little one is actually human, encased in a shell for the incubation. With the final of the armor eliminated, the child is revealed to be a clone of Susan and Harris’s late daughter. Lady Vs. Brain in ‘Demon Seed’. Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Canby, Vincent (April 9, 1977). “Computer Suitor in ‘Demon Seed'”. Siskel, Gene (April 5, 1977). “‘Demon Seed’ just does not compute”. Arnold, Gary (April 8, 1977). “‘Demon Seed’: A Computerized Horror”. The Washington Post. p. Pym, John (October 1977). “Demon Seed”. The Monthly Film Bulletin. Rotten Tomatoes. United States: Fandango Media. Berra, John (2010). Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood, Volume 1. Fishponds, Bristol, United Kingdom: Intellect Books. Garcia, Frank Phillips, Mark (2008). Science Fiction Television Series, 1990-2004 (Illustrated ed.). New York City: McFarland & Company. Nowell, Richard (2010). Blood Money: A History of the first Teen Slasher Film Cycle. London: Bloomsbury Academic. p. Young, R. G. (2000). The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies (1st ed.). Milwaukee: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books.
“