The Best Horror Studio Sells Out To AI, Betraying Its Greatest Director

By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 1 hour ago

A24 has released a number of different films over the years, including coming-of-age dramas like Lady Bird, sci-fi thinkers like Ex-Machina, and superhero deconstructions like Everything Everywhere All At Once. Primarily, however, they are known as a horror studio thanks to genre-redefining hits like Hereditary and Midsommar. To really drive the point home, A24 is responsible for two of the breakout hits of the summer: Obsession and Backrooms, two micro-budget horror films that are earning money hand over fist while the latest Star Wars film flounders at the box office.

A24 already had a sterling rep with horror fans, and they earned even more cred for giving such a great platform to YouTube sensations Curry Barker and Kane Parsons (the directors of Obsession and Backrooms, respectively). Unfortunately, A24 is about to squander all of this goodwill by partnering with Google on an AI project. This has left many who would rather keep AI away from art feeling more than a bit betrayed. Barker is likely feeling that betrayal, too: recently, he has prominently spoken out against the use of AI in film, and many feel Obsession is secretly an anti-AI film.

AI: Hollywood’s Latest Obsession

Recently, A24 announced a partnership with Google, and the search giant has invested a whopping $75 million into this partnership. What are they doing together, exactly? The short answer is that the studio will be working with Google’s DeepMind division in an attempt to develop AI tools that could help out future filmmakers. On paper, this is a deal that really benefits the studio the most. While A24 will have access to DeepMind’s extensive research and powerful infrastructure, Google will not get access to the studio’s own content or media library. 

What will these AI tools look like, exactly? While there’s no way to know every tool they might develop, A24 Labs lead researcher, Scott Belsky, told The Wall Street Journal the studio isn’t interested in simply producing films cheaper and faster. Rather, they are exploring applications like AI-generated storyboards, an idea supported by Martin Scorsese. “We think there are better uses that preserve creative control and support risk-taking,” Belsky said. In a perfect world, this would leave all of the direct creative elements in filmmakers’ hands while simply streamlining production of the film.

Driving Fans A Little Crazy

Still, many fans who want AI out of film altogether have taken to social media, announcing that they plan to boycott future A24 films because of this partnership with Google. Those fans feel betrayed by creatives embracing AI at all and that any use of this technology is a slippery slope to making worse films. One person likely feeling betrayed is Curry Barker, who recently told The Guardian that “I’m scared of AI” and suggested that audiences would effectively vote with their dollars.

“I feel like there’s going to be AI content and there’s going to be our content, and it’s going to be well, where’s the demand at?” he asked. Given the success of Obsession (an insanely successful movie made for cheap, all without AI), it seems clear Barker is betting human-made content will always win out.

In a different interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Barker was asked what movie studios needed to know about Gen Z. He responded that his generation is “tired of slop” and just wants “good movies back.” Considering that “AI slop” has become the term for all AI-generated content, Barker will presumably keep avoiding this technology. He may also continue quietly crusading against it. Many critical reactions to Obsession noted that the movie feels like an anti-AI allegory. After all, Bear is an AI user whose desire for a fully devoted girlfriend is not unlike men who prefer AI girlfriends that they can more easily control.

At any rate, this partnership with Google represents a major step back for A24. The studio likely embraced this deal, thinking it would put them on the cutting edge of cinematic content. Unfortunately, they made this deal at the height of AI backlash, all while Curry Barker, their hottest new director, is being very vocal about the dangers of AI. By the time it’s all over, A24 will likely wish they had never embraced AI so wholeheartedly. When that happens, though, not even a One Wish Willow will be able to undo the damage to their brand.