Nightmare Code (2014) Online

In a press release, Mark Netter describes his recent film "Nightmare Code" as being much like the merging of Stephen King's "The Shining" with Hal from "2001" and this is a very apt description for this exciting movie. I normally am not a bit fan of violent or horror films, but this one was very intelligently made and is well worth seeing-- just be forewarned that it is intense and not something to show your kids. Amazingly, this excellent film was made with a budget reported to be only about $80,000....a mere pittance. Yet, inexplicably, the picture looks great and kept my attention throughout.

When the film begins, a new expert, Brett, has been hired to rescue a failed computer project called "R.O.P.E.R.". It seems that the genius who was the mastermind of this facial recognition program lost his mind....killing many of his co-workers and then himself. So, with the project nearly complete, the company is desperate for Brett to rescue this expensive program. This is because the surviving team members are frustrated. Each time they think the program is nearly complete and ready to go, bugs keep surfacing...almost as if the program itself is re-writing itself and creating glitches! The further Brett delves into the project, however, the more sinister it all becomes...and just how powerful R.O.P.E.R. is becomes apparent. The program not only can potentially recognize faces but emotions and intent. So, a user could see what co-workers were seemingly thinking about them...and this apparently led to the genius going on his recent killing spree. But is everything R.O.P.E.R. shows them real? And, what nefarious agenda is behind all this? And what's going to happen to Brett and this bizarre project? I could easily say more about the plot but just don't want to give too much away. There are many wonderful twists you just need to see for yourself.

In many ways, "Nightmare Code" is a so-called "found footage" movie. However, instead of a found video which makes up films like The Blair Witch Project or Troll Hunter, this one shows what is happening through four-paned security camera footage as well as Skype phone calls! This is truly revolutionary and complicated--and surely required Netter to do some very impressive editing and directing. While the technique might sound a bit bizarre, it actually works very well and is quite visually arresting. Because of this as well as excellent acting and a taut script, the picture is among the best low-budget films I have seen in recent years. It also makes me wonder what Mike Netter will be able to do with a larger budget and even more experience under his belt.

Nightmare Code (2014) Review

Nightmare Code begins with a nightmare scenario, practically a whole team of people are shot dead with the shooter then taking his own life. The shooter was programmer Foster Cotton (Googy Gress). Cotton was working on a top secret surveillance program, along with his team, that can determine an individual's next course of action. The selling point for such coding is that the program would help cut down on criminal activity by sussing out when an individual is about to perpetrate a crime before they've actually committed it (very much like Minority Report then).

Keen to finish Cotton's work the company bring in Brett Desmond (Andrew J. West), a notorious code wizard, to investigate what went wrong prior to the massacre, sort out the code and thus deliver a final workable product. Desmond starts by watching clips left by the previous programmer, the shooter Foster Cotton. It appears that the code is rewriting itself and has more secrets than it is willing to give up and reveal. Will Desmond end up going 'Columbine', like his predecessor, or will Nightmare Code surprise us all and finish on a happy note? Here's a clue. There are no surprises in Nightmare Code but that doesn't prevent it from being entertaining if a little familiar.

Computer paranoia seems old hat now with everyone a willing slave to technology. Back when the likes of Demon Seed (1977) and The Lawnmower Man (1992) were released there was scope to chill an audience with the potential dangers of giving technology free reign and taking over. Fortunately the film is saved by some strong writing at the start, a rarity in low budget horror, where the techno babble is digestible and the set-up initially intriguing. Otherwise there's little new on offer that hasn't been touched upon in some shape or form before with the plot also unfolds pretty much as you would expect it to right up to an unnecessary 'one more shock' ending.

Speaking about technology having a mind of its own the press link to view the film was via Vimeo. Unlike other screeners I have received, that were viewed on the same format, the playing of the film kept stalling. It took an age to play, and therefore watch the film, so what should have been ninety minute's viewing pleasure took three hours instead killing the film's momentum. It seemed paradoxical that I was watching a film about dangers with modern technology when the technology itself seemed unable to play a flick about it properly.

Check out more of my reviews at www.mybloodyreviews.com

A delightfully edgy, psycho-tech, AI gone amok indie production . . .

OK, so it's a bit ridiculous, over the top, soul eating AI gone amok extravaganza, done on a shoe string budget . . . but that's what makes this curious, obscure indie production so delightful.

If one wanted to pick apart the key story ingredients of this production, it's not exactly new territory. However, the way these ingredients are combined, like re-organizing the pieces of a puzzle, create a somewhat different picture composed from already familiar pieces.

It's a bit difficult to outline how these pieces fit together without crossing into spoiler territory, but the basic gist centers around the creation of a highly adaptive, emotional cognition engine type of AI platform. That part of the film actually is fairly close to the current reality, as such adaptive cognition engine systems already exist and are being deployed in numerous AI apps all over the world.

Where the story here takes off from current reality and into more, well, esoteric territory is when the system begins to acquire the "soul" or consciousness of the key software developers working on this system, with dark and foreboding violent consequences.

Almost the entire production is viewed through the system's sensory portals, with much of the production actually portrayed through a quad split screen computer interface. It sounds a bit weak describing here in writing, but the way this was composed, it actually comes off fairly well.

If anything, this production deserves credit for making the most of minimal resources, but having enough content and character to pull it off.

In particular, Mei Melancon is the perfect embodiment of the "Nora" character . . . I've actually worked in tech development projects with exactly that type of character as portrayed.

All the cast delivered a fairly reasonable portrayal of your typical collection of assorted code developers and hyper nervous project managers grinding away under impossible deadlines (an all too familiar scenario). Even though the story itself definitely wandered far into the ether of far fetched fantasy, the character studies were pretty much spot on.

I'm hovering between 6 and 7 stars, but will give benefit of a doubt and go for 7.

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.

Nightmare Code is a very interesting tale of man's attempt to predict the unpredictable nature of human beings. It's ambitious in its stylistic approach of using technology as a means to cross communicate with its characters.

I'm a pretty big sucker for ensemble type stories. Something about watching all these pieces move around one another fascinates me. Maybe that's because how life works in general. The film has some cool scifi usage if that's your thing in particular.

Give it a shot and see what you think. It's always nice to take a look at an independently made film for a change. They tend to have more passion behind them versus some of the copy and paste work we see out of Hollywood.

Happy viewing!

This movie is ... well I'm not sure WHAT to say about it. Engrossing? A definite must watch for all the technophiles out there? Maybe even the exact opposite of all the technophiles. The concept is, a tech company with a major programmer who's helped with some others creates the ultimate big brother computer. The programmer downloads his conscious into the computer and gains immortality, which is exactly what he was trying to do. A new freelance programmer is hired because he needs major legal help, (and money) to avoid jail, but finds he's in over his head. From the anti technophiles point of view this is the ULTIMATE scare, the computer DICTATES reality, it video records the future as it sees it TO HAPPEN. The government (pro technophiles side) wants this technology for obvious reasons ... someone spits on the sidewalk the cop is there waiting 5 minutes before they do it with a citation. The new programmer and several other employees of the company go mad searching for immortality. It comes with a price. The movie is well written, acted, and the first time I watched it, completely tripped me out. Some will love it, others will run away from the concept.

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.

The picture pushes the envelope by disrupting the audience with multiple perspectives and 4 different camera angles on the screen at one time. This puts the "user" in the computers mind and subjects the viewer to the whims of "Roper". "Roper" is the brainchild of a gifted, but jaded programmer. He is replaced by a younger sexier version to "de-bug" Roper, but the new guy seems to fall into the same traps. He is under pressure by an international corporation that prioritize profits before people. Sex, violence, and complicated modern relationships emerge the audience in a tomorrow which keeps one gripping the edge of their seat to savor one last day "today"...