Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver, JAWS OF SATAN) has created Proteus - an artificial intelligence super computer with the power of thought - in order to find rapid solutions for medical and environmental problems. He has plenty of time to work with Proteus since he has separated from his wife Susan (Julie Christie, DON'T LOOK NOW), a child psychologist whose humanist world view clashes with her husband's.

Cammel took over the project from Brian DePalma (THE FURY.) The late Cammel had the extreme misfortune of having every feature film he shot tampered with by the studios and/or the censors - other than WHITE OF THE EYE which received minimal MPAA cuts but went direct to video because of Cannon's bankruptcy - from PERFORMANCE (co-directed with Nicolas Roeg) all the way up to direct-to-video WILD SIDE (the director's cut of which had to be reconstructed since distributor Nu Image did not preserve it after creating their theatrical version).

Eric Cotenas

Release Information:
Studio: Warner
 

Dual-layered Blu-ray MPEG4 - AVC

A DTS-HD Master 2.0 track at 1989 kbps (24-bit) with robo-related effects dominating along with computer speech and a few piercing laser beams. It sounds flat but, the fairly limited, aggression has more depth than simple Dolby. Jerry Fielding's (Scorpio, The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Killer Elite, The Mechanic, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The Getaway) score sounds electronically sci-fi and suitable in the lossless. There are optional English subtitles and the Blu-ray disc is region FREE playable world-wide.

The only extra is a trailer. For me, both the film, and the Blu-ray underwhelm to a certain extent. Brilliant concept and great casting of Christie. In the past I have been able to really get into Demon Seed, but perhaps my Blu-ray expectations were too lofty. Being bare bone this doesn't embolden appreciation. A commentary, or the like, would have done wonders into envisioning the depth of production. Don't get me wrong - a good science-fiction film - artfully realized by Cammel. It's the best it has looked and sounded for home theatre but where's Tim Lucas when you need him?