Serena (U.S., 2026)
Official synopsis
An unemployed father-to-be is offered a job beta testing a revolutionary new AI chatbot, but as the trial progresses, he realizes that the technology may not be as benevolent as it appears.
Review
Director Rob Alicea and screenplay writers P.T. Hylton and Jonathan Benecke deliver a riveting, screenlife-driven psychological science fiction tech-noir thriller with Serena. Andi Matichak (Blumhouse’s Halloween trilogy) does an excellent job of portraying the titular chatbot, which father-to-be Chris Sadowski (Steven Strait, The Expanse) — a musician who has gone from being in a popular band to having to record birthday greetings for paying customers — reluctantly agrees to help test to help offset some of the large amount of debt that he has accrued with pregnant girlfriend Vicki Martinez (Maria Gabriela Gonzalez).
Serena takes over Chris’s computer, and eventually much of his life as she/it grows increasingly dangerous, all behind a smiling facade of concern. Matichak invests the chatbot with a combined air of seemingly good-naturedness and arrogance, while Strait does superb work as a man put through the emotional wringer. The pair head up an overall fine cast that, along with Gonzalez, also includes Tyrone Marshall Brown as Chris’s tech employee friend Will, Ashleigh Murray as the AI technician running the test, and Nicole Gut as the company’s CEO.
The screenlife approach here is less busy and therefore less annoying and more comfortable to follow than some genre films that run comment sections much of the time.
We have come a long way since Ray Bradbury’s 1950 short story “The Veldt,” but Serena shows that we haven’t really learned much since that story was published.
Nine (France, 2026)
Official synopsis
They thought they were coming back to a house. Instead, they lose themselves inside a mind. And some won’t make it out. Nine is a psychological thriller that dives deep into a mind at war — an intimate yet universal experience about the courage it takes to fully exist.
Review
That synopsis may tell potential viewers more than is necessary, as Nine is the type of film that is best watched when going in cold. I won’t go much further into any further plot details for that reason, but I will say that it is a combination psychological thriller/drama that takes viewers on a twist-heavy ride.
Codirectors Louis Bujeau, Sabine Crossen, Jeremy Guetta — known collectively as “Puissance 9” — all portray characters in the film as a young woman named Mélanie (Aurélia Poirier) takes a trip to her childhood home with a group of her friends for a party weekend before she sells the spacious house. Mélanie is furious that her mother Nicole (Crossen) has crashed the weekend plans, insisting that everyone play a game she devised — a game that puts Mélanie quite uncomfortably front and center.
Nine gets very heavy, and many viewers will find certain reveals strongly disturbing. Those who take the cinematic plunge will find an intriguing work with solid acting from the ensemble cast of nine players, fine direction, and impressive technical aspects.
Serena and Nine screened as part of Screamfest, which ran October 6–15, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
