(2013, US, 93 min) Dir Jay White. Cast Daryl Sabara, Linda Hamilton, Jason Hampton, Kevin Smith.
Comedy techno-horror. Gifted young hacker Jimmy Staedtler (Sabara) spends most of his time in his bedroom with the curtains drawn, desperately trying to think of a scheme that will put him on the map and avoiding his nerdly neighbour Hal (Hampton) when he notices that his Twitter account has been updating itself with sinister messages. This is when he discovers, along with the rest of the world, the worst news possible – so much information has been pumped into Twitter that it has achieved sentience and it is now reaching out across the web to take control of anything it can. Staedtler gathers a loose confederation of fellow hackers on 4chan but will they be able to achieve what the authorities haven’t and defeat the ultimate web-spanning intelligence while the world burns outside their windows? White’s foray into technological amusements is more fantastical than Los Data but it’s an inventive if super low budgeted comedy. It’s not above a little stunt casting either – Hamilton, as Staedtler’s mother, knows a thing or two about rogue computer intelligence from the Terminator series and noted blogger and sometime director Kevin Smith gamely cameos as himself before, perhaps inevitably, being murdered by his own Twitter feed.
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