Nightmare Code

In a press release, Mark Netter describes his recent film "Nightmare Code" as being much like the merging of Stephen King's "The Shining" with Hal from "2001" and this is a very apt description for this exciting movie. I normally am not a bit fan of violent or horror films, but this one was very intelligently made and is well worth seeing-- just be forewarned that it is intense and not something to show your kids. Amazingly, this excellent film was made with a budget reported to be only about $80,000....a mere pittance. Yet, inexplicably, the picture looks great and kept my attention throughout.

When the film begins, a new expert, Brett, has been hired to rescue a failed computer project called "R.O.P.E.R.". It seems that the genius who was the mastermind of this facial recognition program lost his mind....killing many of his co-workers and then himself. So, with the project nearly complete, the company is desperate for Brett to rescue this expensive program. This is because the surviving team members are frustrated. Each time they think the program is nearly complete and ready to go, bugs keep surfacing...almost as if the program itself is re-writing itself and creating glitches! The further Brett delves into the project, however, the more sinister it all becomes...and just how powerful R.O.P.E.R. is becomes apparent. The program not only can potentially recognize faces but emotions and intent. So, a user could see what co-workers were seemingly thinking about them...and this apparently led to the genius going on his recent killing spree. But is everything R.O.P.E.R. shows them real? And, what nefarious agenda is behind all this? And what's going to happen to Brett and this bizarre project? I could easily say more about the plot but just don't want to give too much away. There are many wonderful twists you just need to see for yourself.

In many ways, "Nightmare Code" is a so-called "found footage" movie. However, instead of a found video which makes up films like The Blair Witch Project or Troll Hunter, this one shows what is happening through four-paned security camera footage as well as Skype phone calls! This is truly revolutionary and complicated--and surely required Netter to do some very impressive editing and directing. While the technique might sound a bit bizarre, it actually works very well and is quite visually arresting. Because of this as well as excellent acting and a taut script, the picture is among the best low-budget films I have seen in recent years. It also makes me wonder what Mike Netter will be able to do with a larger budget and even more experience under his belt.

The picture pushes the envelope by disrupting the audience with multiple perspectives and 4 different camera angles on the screen at one time. This puts the "user" in the computers mind and subjects the viewer to the whims of "Roper". "Roper" is the brainchild of a gifted, but jaded programmer. He is replaced by a younger sexier version to "de-bug" Roper, but the new guy seems to fall into the same traps. He is under pressure by an international corporation that prioritize profits before people. Sex, violence, and complicated modern relationships emerge the audience in a tomorrow which keeps one gripping the edge of their seat to savor one last day "today"...

Nightmare Code is a very interesting tale of man's attempt to predict the unpredictable nature of human beings. It's ambitious in its stylistic approach of using technology as a means to cross communicate with its characters.

I'm a pretty big sucker for ensemble type stories. Something about watching all these pieces move around one another fascinates me. Maybe that's because how life works in general. The film has some cool scifi usage if that's your thing in particular.

Give it a shot and see what you think. It's always nice to take a look at an independently made film for a change. They tend to have more passion behind them versus some of the copy and paste work we see out of Hollywood.

Happy viewing!

A captivating and intense thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Most of the time you watch feed from 4 cameras / screens simultaneously, which might remind one of Timecode, but it's an entirely different approach here (you'll learn from the movie what it's about, I won't spoil it). It has great production values and actors do an excellent job portraying their characters.

This is a pure entertainment movie, so don't expect to see something serious about the matter (AI and human behaviour recognition). Wouldn't be hard to explain without the spoilers, but just a small detail that main character acts like a super hacker should be enough, he does everything on his laptop just by typing and uses lines like "I cracked your code".

About built-in subtitles. Previous Digital Devolver movie releases I bought here and watched had a very poor work done when it comes to subtitles - missing text and broken timing (especially The Basement). But this one got everything right, subtitles are perfect.

Originally written in December 29 2015, bought it on Steam.

A delightfully edgy, psycho-tech, AI gone amok indie production . . .

OK, so it's a bit ridiculous, over the top, soul eating AI gone amok extravaganza, done on a shoe string budget . . . but that's what makes this curious, obscure indie production so delightful.

If one wanted to pick apart the key story ingredients of this production, it's not exactly new territory. However, the way these ingredients are combined, like re-organizing the pieces of a puzzle, create a somewhat different picture composed from already familiar pieces.

It's a bit difficult to outline how these pieces fit together without crossing into spoiler territory, but the basic gist centers around the creation of a highly adaptive, emotional cognition engine type of AI platform. That part of the film actually is fairly close to the current reality, as such adaptive cognition engine systems already exist and are being deployed in numerous AI apps all over the world.

Where the story here takes off from current reality and into more, well, esoteric territory is when the system begins to acquire the "soul" or consciousness of the key software developers working on this system, with dark and foreboding violent consequences.

Almost the entire production is viewed through the system's sensory portals, with much of the production actually portrayed through a quad split screen computer interface. It sounds a bit weak describing here in writing, but the way this was composed, it actually comes off fairly well.

If anything, this production deserves credit for making the most of minimal resources, but having enough content and character to pull it off.

In particular, Mei Melancon is the perfect embodiment of the "Nora" character . . . I've actually worked in tech development projects with exactly that type of character as portrayed.

All the cast delivered a fairly reasonable portrayal of your typical collection of assorted code developers and hyper nervous project managers grinding away under impossible deadlines (an all too familiar scenario). Even though the story itself definitely wandered far into the ether of far fetched fantasy, the character studies were pretty much spot on.

I'm hovering between 6 and 7 stars, but will give benefit of a doubt and go for 7.