_**If HAL from “2001: A Space Odyssey” were grounded in Los Angeles**_

Married to a computer scientist (Fritz Weaver), a child psychologist (Julie Christie) finds her home invaded by an autonomous supercomputer named Proteus IV, created by her husband at his futuristic lab in Thousand Oaks. What does it want?

"Demon Seed" (1977) is a techno-thriller that mixes “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) with “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (1970) and “The Stepford Wives” (1975). Unlike “2001” the story is entirely Earth-bound, but the self-conscious supercomputer with a HAL-like voice, the psychedelic visual interludes and the sound effects are straight out of “2001.”

Julie looks great in a challenging role and the cutting edge effects (for that era) hold up. Furthermore, the movie creates a disturbing vibe concerning menacing, out-of-control technology. But the story’s just too one-dimensional with the bulk of it taking place in the couple’s house that Proteus has taken over.

The film runs 1 hour, 34 minutes, and was shot in Thousand Oaks & Los Angeles, California.

GRADE: B-/C+

I had only known of the eccentric, ill-fated director by going through Kenneth Anger's provocative short films collections and seeing Cammell act, early in his career, in Anger's 'Lucifer Rising'. Here, Julie Christie was both gorgeous and eerily convincing in a bizarre hybrid of 'Rosemary's Baby' with sci-fi elements reminiscent of 'Colossus: The Forbin Project'.

The unique atmosphere and directorial integrity alone are worth the price of admission here. Well worth both purchasing and re-watching for the cinematically adventurous connoisseurs out there.

"Demon Seed" is one of those movies where things technically don't make much sense. Writer Dean Koontz looked to capitalize on the high-tech paranoia of the 1970's public and to them, this was probably pretty scary stuff. As computers have since become intertwined in our daily lives, it makes "Demon Seed" laughable, mostly because so much of what happens in the movie wouldn't even be feasible if the computers of today replaced the Proteus IV system of Dr. Harris (played by a scruffy Fritz Weaver).

I'll admit to liking this movie somewhat due to the artificial intelligence idea, but there are other movies from this time period that do it better. "Colossus: The Forbin Project" and "War Games" come immediately to mind. It was awfully difficult to look past the silly terminal "orgasm" scene when Mrs. Harris (Julie Christie) became Mommy Proteus. I also kept wondering where Proteus got all of the materials to build the incubator, not to mention the spinning, multi-purpose geometric hitman/impregnator thingy. The effects were pretty weak overall except for the aforementioned rotating triangles of death object. I found that to be a pretty original invention.

I usually find Dean Koontz stories to be a little bland and somehow this movie follows suit even though it sets up an interesting premise. Proteus IV is sufficiently creepy and its techno-rape of Mrs. Harris leaves you feeling uneasy. It isn't too vulgar but it certainly covers the computer/human sex act with more than enough foreplay.