Demon Seed Review

These days, a movie about a mad supercomputer that terrorises a woman through her automated environment and forces her to bear its child would be considered a high concept cyberthriller. In 1977 it was made by Donald Cammell — Nicolas Roeg’s Performance partner — as a visionary art movie. Julie Christie is trapped in her home by a computer with Robert Vaughn’s voice, and suffers through a reign of tyranny until a surprisingly upbeat and moving final genesis. Though the clumsy geometric tentacle that does most of the machine’s evil will cries out for morphing, this is remarkably prescient in its tackling of issues the cinema is only now catching up with, and Christie adds depth to the lady-in-peril heroine. Well worth reassessment.