Demon Seed

Demon Seed (Demon Seed) is a 1977 American science fiction film directed by Donald Cammell and starring Julie Christie and Fritz Weaver. It is based on the science fiction novel The Devil's Baby by Dean R. Koontz, published in 1973.

Plot

A woman is forcibly locked in her home by a smart computer. The reason for the kidnapping is that the computer intends to seek an "immortality" human begetting a child. It achieves this purpose with a trick based on the fact that if a certain scientific method is applied to the sexual cells, an ovum can behave like a spermatozoon and achieve fertilization, a somewhat advanced idea and close to cloning for the time. in which the film was made. Then, the computer manages to create, from a sample of the woman, a cell in charge of fertilizing the woman. After certain accidents, he achieves his goal and accelerates the process so that the pregnancy lasts 28 days, after which the machine introduces the spawn into an incubator where he must spend 5 days to grow and also acquire his enormous knowledge, then seeing the close disconnection of Its circuits in the world decide to disconnect itself, but not before advising them to leave the incubator alone. Which does not happen because in a fit of terror and aversion at the vision of the monster that is her daughter, her mother disconnects her seeking her death. And in the end the spawn comes out of the incubator dying and they see that under the metallic skin there is a living human body. That leaves the viewer wondering if she gave the machine time to pass on her knowledge to her daughter.

Technical data sheet

• Original title: Demon Seed
• Country: United States
• Year: 1977
• Gender: Science fiction/terror
• Duration: 94 minutes
• Address: Donald Cammell
• Protagonists: Julie Christie
• Production: Herb Jaffe
• Guion: Dean R. Koontz
• Music: Jerry Fielding

Cast

• Julie Christie - Susan Harris
• Fritz Weaver - Alex Harris
• Gerrit Graham - Walter Gabler
• Berry Kroeger - Petrosian
• Lisa Lu - Soon Yen
• Larry J. Blake - Cameron
• John O'Leary - Royce
• Alfred Dennis - Mokri
• Davis Roberts - Warner
• Patricia Wilson - Mrs. Trabert
• E. Hampton Beagle - Night Operator
• Michael Glass - Technician #1
• Barbara O. Jones - Technician #2
• Dana Laurita - Amy
• Monica MacLean - Joan Kemp
• Harold Oblong - Scientist
• Georgie Paul - Housekeeper
• Michelle Stacy - Marlene/Son of Proteus
• Tiffany Potter - Bebe
• Felix Silla - Bebe

Themes

The film advances ideas that were very novel for the time, such as cloning, because it proposes modifying the sexual cells for self-fertilization, as well as other rather novel circumstances outside of the academic or military sphere, such as computer networks. In addition, it allows a glimpse of a conspiratorial universe, because in a dialogue of the same, a senior leader is afraid that artificial intelligence will rebel against them and tell "everything he knows"; to the world.

The film has also become known for very grotesque scenes of an alleged penetration/rape of a woman by a machine.