Good movie but grossly overrated

Brilliant and touching

Awesome Movie

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) has developed a computer called Proteus IV with organic artificial intelligence and lives with his estranged wife Susan (Julie Christie) in a fully automated house administrated by the computer Alfred. When Alex decides to separate from Susan to work harder In Proteus IV, the computer asks for an open terminal to study the human behavior to increase his knowledge. Alex refuses to give a terminal to Proteus IV, but he forgets that there is one at his home. Proteus IV uses the terminal to take over Alfred and trap Susan at home. He also decides to have a son with the wife of his creator to become immortal. Forty years after its release, "Demon Seed" is a dated, but still fascinating sci-fi horror film. In the 60's and 70's, Julie Christie was sort of muse with magnificent cinematography including "Dr. Jivago", "Fahrenheit 451", "Don't Look Now" and has another wonderful performance. "Demon Seed" shows a scary view of artificial intelligence and has a great open conclusion. The character Walter Gabler is forgotten in the story. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Geração Proteus" ("Proteus Generation")

A bizarre film, an early adaptation of a Dean Koontz tale, which successfully combines the two sci-fi and horror genres to create an unsettling, sometimes disturbing and sometimes very dated tale of (wo)man against machine. While it's quite a slow paced tale which mainly takes place in a single location, DEMON SEED has plenty of unpleasant moments which are sure to appeal to the horror fan. Not least of these is Proteus itself, a sadistic, incredibly clever computer system out to further itself by fathering a child with Christie. Voiced by an uncredited Robert Vaughn, Proteus is a worthy successor to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY's HAL 9000, a truly frightening computer creation.Julie Christie takes the lead role of Mrs. Harris, an unsuspecting wife caught up in a diabolical plan of impregnation (yes, you heard that right). Christie is a good actress, but I hated her character in this film. She spends far too much time snivelling and not enough time making her own decisions. I mean I'm sure in reality she could have escaped from her prison house - why not just block all of the camera lenses so that Proteus can't see her? She doesn't really make that much of an effort to escape and you get the feeling that she deserves what happens to her.The film starts off well, based in reality, working up some scenes of foreboding as we watch the sinister cameras themselves watching every move of the human participants silently. As time passes, the film becomes more incredible, as Proteus does some unpleasant-looking experimentation on Christie and a giant gold unfolding cube appears in the basement to chop off an interfering victim's head. The film experiments with some pretty but dated computer graphics and gets a bit too arty for its own good in the second half. The film has a hair-raising ending which reminded me of the INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS remake.Fritz Weaver plays the fussy scientist husband who was responsible for creating the computer system in the first place. I like the ending where he storms into the house to destroy the computer, making Christie look like a total prat for putting up with it so long. Cult icon Gerrit Graham also makes an appearance as an unfortunate computer geek who comes a cropper as a result of attempting to stop Proteus. While not a great film - spoiled somewhat by being very dated as a result of the period in which it was made - DEMON SEED has an original idea behind it, which counts for something, and actually manages to be scary unlike many subsequent "computer horrors" like SATURN 3 for example.

This is one of those really difficult movies to categorize since it has elements of both 'x' rated horror as well as sci-fi. The title is, in my opinion, not good and gives a false impression since there's really nothing demonic going on here. Although the things that are done to Julie Christy's character are arguably evil, apparently. In any event poor Walter would likely disagree that nothing demonic was going on!The plot has several really uncomfortable moments. Most women of the time (late 70's, my wife included) would not make it past the initial scenes where Julie Christy's character is first abused physically and then, horrors, sexually. There's some pretty strong stuff going on there.There's little to no explanation by the computer (masterful voice-over by Robert Vaughn) other than, initially, he's interested in "Mrs. Harris'" physiology and lectures her on her dietary intake. It's then revealed that ultimately, PROTEUS wants to create a child using her body. YIKES.This is why I see the plot as being somewhat jumbled. It's very difficult to assimilate what's happening to Christy's character. And the plot gives no hint of what's really happening until the very end. Normally this is a good thing but I think this story was hurt by what you did not know would happen at the end. I appreciate the 'twist' ala Rod Serling but I suspect that many viewers, mostly female, had left the theater by the middle of this movie. And that's a shame because it's the women who would really appreciate what computer PROTEUS had achieved here, had they known what he was really up to.These are my major objections to this movie. I believe they all hurt the watch-ability & popularity of the film. I have a minor beef with using stock sound effects during the scenes where the computer is busy doing it's preparation of Christy's character. In the background you can hear the noise of some sort of machinery going 'clang-clang-clang' over & over & over again. That exact same sound effect can be heard in the movie "The Time Machine" from 1960. It's the sound we hear from the Morlock's machinery under ground! The story is intriguing if not unsettling as well as engaging. And the viewer really has no clue as to how the story is going to end until, literally, minutes before the end. The music fits nicely and is very spacey.The effects are tame by today's standards but pretty good, given the time. I especially liked the golden triangle 'protector device.' Very effective and very original. I gave this movie a 6 because I thought they should have come up with a better title and perhaps modified the plot to be more acceptable to the sensitive females out there. They'd have made a lot more money. However, I suspect that today's young ladies and viewing audience in general, being impatient as I know they are, would likely be put off by the various plot 'appendages' though far less offended by the uncomfortable scenes. This movie woulda, coulda, shoulda been written & produced differently.Just one man's opinion.

When technology enters our lives, we expect simplicity, right? Well in "Demon Seed", it's another story. Here we have a a scientist who has created a computer called Proteus IV. His wife sees him as dehumanized in many ways, spending more time with it than her. Not a very good feature. What's even worse is Proteus wants to study man, more. After shutting down the power, Proteus turned itself on to find a terminal. Since the doctor's house was computer controlled, he gained access there, and began to trap the wife inside. Proteus would later use the wife as a guinea pig for its experiment. The purpose, to produce a child in its likeness. The assistant of the doctor tried to check on the wife, but Proteus kills him. When the doctor found out what Proteus has done, he rushed down to his house and check on the wife. He also finds the incubator when the child is in . It had to be in there for 5 days. Since it only took a short period of time, unlike the normal 9 months. When they saw the child, it resembled their daughter who died from leukemia years earlier. Deep and dark, this is remarkable work from the mind of Dean Koontz. 3 out of 5 stars.