{"id":50075,"date":"2025-10-11T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T04:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=50075"},"modified":"2025-10-11T15:10:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T19:10:50","slug":"appofeniacs-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/11\/appofeniacs-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Appofeniacs [2025] [Screamfest 2025] [Halloween Horror Month 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The horrors of deepfake technology are unleashed upon unsuspecting victims in Chris Marrs Piliero\u2019s gory and prescient Appofeniacs, playing as part of Screamfest LA 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Chris Marrs Piliero\u2019s Appophenia taps into the fears and horror of the modern world. We are all aware of the potential for AI to become a terrible thing in the wrong hands. But how so, who can misuse it, and what damage can they inflict just because? Artificial Intelligence misuse, destruction, and murder (for movies at least) is a popular topic across various media. It\u2019s no surprise; modern horror reflects modern fears. Another at Screamfest CognAItaive, last year\u2019s terrible but has something in the center, AfrAId, and every AI film review (of course, about AI, not using AI; I never will) has to make mention of the long-running Terminator franchise. But Appofeniacs is less about a runway AI, but what\u2019s specifically happening today and how it approaches the effects of individuals with power and without.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Specifically, Appofeniacs is concerned with deep fakes, and how a random person or two with a chip on their shoulder can cause irreparable, violent harm.. The ability to manipulate footage for others to run with is a scary subject, whether it be adding someone into a pornographic video, convincing a couple they are cheating on one another, putting words in other people\u2019s mouths to ruin their lives, or convincing viewers they are committing heinous crimes; it has a power. We laugh and wonder how people can fall for obvious fakes, but what about the good ones? Or even when told \u201cthis is fake\u201d, the damage is done, and plenty of people will believe anyway, no matter what truths come after.<\/span><\/p>\n

Writer-director Piliero presents Appofeniacs as AI-horror GO, a snappy intersection of stories and characters told out of order (yes, Pulp Fiction comes to mind, but tonally this is more Doug Liman\u2019s 1999 film) with a driving energy and force of a music video. Pilier has a long career as a music video director, so that\u2019s not a surprise. I mean this as a compliment. He keeps the film moving with a fantastic sense of pacing. Across Appofeniacs, Piliero has three interlocking stories and ways of approaching this technological terror.\u00a0 One story watches a friend group dissolve due to a lie, making connections not there (the title refers to making connections where they are none) on a whim, with a violent resolution (awesome gore effects). In another portion, a chronically online incel, the type to take quick edgelord offence at anything, sets up a random passerby to have her world destroyed with a lie, and finally, a home invasion based on the terror of doxxing leads to a bloodbath (with MORE awesome gore effects). Side note: the homeowner is Sean Gunn, more than a mere \u201chey, someone we know!\u201d cameo.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the center is Duke, played with skeevy \u201coh god I know too many of that guy\u201d perfection by Aaron Holliday. He\u2019s the closest thing the film has to a protagonist, an odious ass. There is no hero. But this is a case where everyone is an ass in some way (but not deserving of what happens, just not angels), even the victims, and the person we see most might be the worst. He\u2019s the protagonist in his head, though, taking everything for a slight against him; whether it be asking to tip at a coffee shop (director cameo as the barista), demanding a cosplay-creator take him on his word<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>He fails to see the common denominator in all these efforts: himself. So, of course, his knee-jerk abrasion sets off the bloody chains of events. Not a scheming company, not some hotshot gangster wanting more money and power. An incel with a computer program and a lack of self-reflection. Just because. That\u2019s what\u2019s scary and true of our society. Someone puts something out there because they\u2019re mad, and it might catch the world on fire, or at least lead to small pockets of destruction, as seen here.\u00a0 There is another side of the coin, a calming, enjoying the chaos friend of Duke. For however reactionary Duke is, the friend is calm and collected. But just as, or more, dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s meant, but there is a \u201cdon\u2019t anger the edgelord\u201d message, which seems off. Perhaps the film would be stronger with a competing positive through line, but maybe the dour, endless cycle is the point. The movie is in the message over the characters or line-to-line writing, which is hit or miss. It\u2019s a film that works better at the wide-view messaging than the details. So take it as you will.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The film functions as a cautionary tale of taking what\u2019s online at face value, taking new jerk reactions. Said reactions can spiral into hurt and pain. Most likely more emotional than physical. Overall, the film may be hyperbole with the said physical reaction: said friends of the first section have an extreme reaction to everything, the doxxing invasion descends into bloody chaos. But that\u2019s the point, and it is a bloody horror film, not a heady drama.\u00a0 It works in that manner; it\u2019s a loud, fast, and bumpin\u2019 film, so going big and bloody is fitting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Appofeniacs is a bloody, modern tech-horror of a different bend: how people can be manipulated, destroyed, or worse by the misuse of the tools at our fingertips. It\u2019s all the more terrifying that one person with a bad day (their fault or not) can make things worse for the rest. Check it out. Appofeniacs is playing currently as part of Screamfest LA, running October 7th through 16th, 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The horrors of deepfake technology are unleashed upon unsuspecting victims in Chris Marrs Piliero\u2019s gory and prescient Appofeniacs, playing as part of Screamfest LA 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284,7,12],"tags":[477],"class_list":["post-50075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festivalsevents","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50080,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50075\/revisions\/50080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}