Nightmare Code (2014)

I love this movie so much

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

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.

This was surprisingly good for the budget. The actors were well chosen, and played their parts convincingly. A man who was a whistle-blower in a government tech job, and who subsequently ended up in legal trouble (though what he did to end up that way is never explained) winds up in another tech job, trying to work out the bugs on a software development project that the previous senior developer went postal on, killing his entire team and himself. Through all kinds of snafus, and ups and downs, he struggles to make the program work, ironing out the bugs. However, for some unforeseen (to them)circumstances, the bugs keep reappearing and replicating. Eventually, we learn that the previous senior programmer, whose name was Cotton, had worked the program in a way that he could upload himself into the program, thereby becoming immortal. It's Cotton that is changing r.o.p.e.r. into something other than a recognition software. As expected, it doesn't end well for the human race.This was a good little film, full of suspense and taking its jabs at 'big brother'. The characters were very well fleshed out, and you sympathized with every one of them. There were a couple of douchy minor characters, but every good movie needs at least one. Someone you root for to bite the big one. You felt the paranoia as the computer systems began to actually act on their own. This went far beyond AI and into realms of 'ghost in the machine'. 'Transcendence', another film along these lines and boasting both big budget and big stars, is a good movie to compare this one to. Both were effective in the messages they were trying to send, and both are incredibly good watches.

The first complete work by director Mark Netter and co-writer and co-executive producer M J Rotondi is a "Drop the Keyboard, I'm out" success. Normally one would expect a smaller budget film to skimp on detail, and substitute blood spatter for material, however this absolutely was not the case with Nightmare_Code. The stunning attention to even the smallest detail made this film as good as anything you'd see out of big Hollywood, and the best part (wait for it!): It's a terrific, multifaceted story! Let me begin by writing I would not classify this as horror. It is much more of a thriller / suspense movie. It has a few horror elements to it, but it certainly is not blood and gore by any stretch of the imagination or anything akin to a "slasher" type movie. If you love thrillers and suspense this movie is for you. If you are looking for Jason XXXIV: Jason kills the Matrix you're probably off base.A prima facie look at the movie will tell you that it centers around ROPER, a computer AI that runs amok. What is one of the many wonders of this movie is that the story really is the human one, and not the story of ROPER. ROPER more acts as a gravitational point which the other characters revolve around.For much of the movie, we are viewing the world through the eyes of the artificial intelligence, ROPER, and the screen is split into 4 distinct quadrants, like looking at surveillance cam footage. The sound team deftly moves the sound appropriately to each area of the screen by moving the sound through the 5.1 or Stereo fields so you aren't left fighting to figure out which "screen" to watch. Just relax and let the sound guide you and you'll follow along just fine.Foster Cotton, played by Steve Wozniak type Googy Gress, and his team are working on an artificial intelligence surveillance system that reads emotions and state of mind by tracking facial movements, body positions etc and then tries (with gaining accuracy) to predict the target subject's next behavior. Unfortunately, Googy for reasons later revealed comes unhinged and massacres his fellow co-workers. The sequence/footage of the killings, when revealed, is downright disturbing due to the artful way the entire movie is put together. You feel like you are witnessing a workplace shooting first hand and there is nothing you can do but watch.When the carnage is over, it is left to the reboot team to finish the project. Enter Brett Desmond played by Andrew J West of Walking Dead infamy, and Nora Hunstman played by Mei Melançon and the rest of the crew. The underpants gnomes are off to work! (South Park reference). Working tirelessly, with Desmond both working and sleeping on site, the group tries to close out bugs and finish the project but for some reason, they can't seem to just get it over the hump and ready to ship.Working in the technology world myself, I was stunned how close to reality this was in many ways. Of course film makers take liberties, however the idea of working all the time, facing drop dead dates, and doing the impossible as an everyday course of life nearly sent me into post traumatic stress from my days sitting and working with a team much like the group Netter and Rotondi have put together.The little details, like the Unix shells on the screens, the obsolete books on the table, and the constant jumpiness of the characters themselves can be found in any tech company still today.Stress points and boil overs, with a constantly menacing AI stirring the pot lead the characters down some pretty dark holes. When the characters do make mistakes, even ones they shouldn't, you feel sorry for them. You "understand" why they do the things they do, even if you know they are wrong. This is the very human piece of the story. You are meant to have little sympathy when the AI goes wrong. Humanity, is a purely human trait, and left for humans.I will close out by writing: Nightmare_Code is a must see if you enjoyed movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey. ROPER is not as overwhelming as HAL but quite frankly, that makes it more nefarious. The question was posed to me, is the writer in the code or is the code in the writer, and I think this movie sort of answers that question in it's own interpretation. I personally thought this was a great movie and have already seen it twice. I will certainly see it a third time.

The story that Mark Netter brings to life in this virtual point of view nightmare is clever, elevated, and thrilling. Honestly the tech theories and philosophical theoretical surrounding this degree of artificial intelligence is so over my head that natural a story such as "Nightmare Code" is going to both fascinate and terrify me. I can't honestly praise or debunk the actual material used in the film concerning the code writing, or programmers because that is tech geek stuff, and I still call anime "cartoons". See what I am saying. But I can say that the creative, and brilliant way that Netter tells this story, one does not have to be a tech geek to really get into the movie. It pulls you in, you wanna watch, you feel the horror coming, and you wanna see it happen. "Nightmare Code" isn't all sterile, emotionless A.I gimmick stuff either, the characters are as developed, and personable as any third person psycho-thriller, or traditional tech horror-"Brainscan" and "Lawnmower" man come to mind. Anyway, everything about this film is captivating, intense, and thrilling. Things you don't always get from found footage concepts- all though it isn't really fair to just call this found footage. It is something more. And it all really does come from the POV of A.I , all that data and application stuff that lives inside our devices staring back at us, and in this case- learning and adapting and coming to get us! The special effects in "Nightmare Code" may be the first time I was thrilled, chilled, and entertained by CGI effects. The scenes are blunt, visceral, and affecting. You feel like you watched these deaths really happen, and the blood splatter was awesome. Not a lot of gore, but then I don't think-well I hope-that A.I will never get that into the gory side of killing and death to wanna really revel in it! Fingers crossed and the gods appeased! Overall "Nightmare Code" is a definite watch horror film for all, even the ones who normally flee from found footage concepts should check "Nightmare Code" out. The ending does fall a bit short with the thrilling, horror nature that from the beginning of the film is a steady, haunting build up to the nightmarish climax. It ins't really that much but it is the one noticeable flaw in an excellent flick. And that last sequence before credits is kind of cliché and hokey but unless you end the film a scene earlier it is really the only closing that ties up the plot.