From the Screen to Reality? Sci-Fi Horror Predictions in 2022 Films

Each time you finish watching a movie, it’s easy to walk out and say that none of what you just saw would ever happen in real life. That being said, sometimes movies, especially the sci-fi kind, make pretty accurate predictions for the future. To name a few examples, Star Trek: The Next Generation had touchscreen devices, and 2001: Space Odyssey had tablet computers. With sci-fi horror, predictions for the future are tricky. The horror genre makes use of the “present day” socio-cultural condition as a plot device to paint a picture of a “relevant” dread for the audience. But it doesn’t mean that no sci-fi horror has ever attempted to make any predictions at all. The following sci-fi horror 2022 films actually have some pretty bleak visions of our future.

M3GAN

One of the best and the scariest things about M3GAN is that we probably already have the technologies to build such an advanced and potentially dangerous humanoid AI right now. When she’s not singing, dancing, entertaining, and generally being a good friend to an orphaned girl, you might find her plotting to murder someone. And that’s pretty much the entire story. M3GAN, directed by Gerard Johnstone, is about an orphaned girl named Cady, whose roboticist aunt comforts her with a superintelligent gift called M3GAN. Not only is M3GAN encyclopedic in nature, but also a little possessive of her human companion. And that characteristic leads the AI to mixing up the meaning of providing comfort with being a cold-blooded murderer. This begs the question: will humanoid AI in the near future be able to do the same thing?

It’s true that M3GAN isn’t the first film to depict AI gone rogue. The Terminator did it with Skynet, 2001: Space Odyssey accomplished the same thing with HAL 9000, and Ex Machina gave us Ava. The big difference is that AI wasn’t as prevalent in our daily lives when those movies came out. Back then, humanoid robots remained largely in the realm of fiction, but things have gone a long way since then. Now we’re witnessing how schools ban intelligent chatbots so that students won’t turn to AI to do their homework, and human artists are pushing back against AI development out of fear that the machine is taking away their livelihood.

M3GAN is borderline realistic. At the moment, we have all the right ingredients to build such a super intelligent machine. Robot bodies are available; Boston Dynamics has done a great job of fabricating flexible humanoid bodies that can move, jump, and even dance convincingly like humans. We also have the brain for it; AI systems like ChatGPT can talk to you, answer your questions in fluent English, and help you make an informed-decision when you’re confused about something. M3GAN is a reminder that a humanoid AI has become a real possibility these days. The only thing that keeps it at bay is the lack of a cyber-physical system to put a robotic body and a computer brain together.

If M3GAN is simply a reminder, her behavior is the prediction. Robot revolution, in which robots surpass humanity in every imaginable scenario and decide to take over the planet (most likely by exterminating humans), could be the inevitable consequence. That’s the futuristic prediction the film is trying to propose. A robot might be programmed to protect someone, but programming without clear restrictions means the robot can interpret it as an order to do everything necessary to accomplish its aim. If some people present themselves as a threat to Cady, it would make sense for M3GAN to kill those people. And if M3GAN wants to keep doing its purpose, she cannot let anyone turn her off or incapacitate her.

Crimes of the Future

Another 2022 sci-fi horror film worth mentioning is Crimes of the Future, directed by David Cronenberg. The film presents an idea that technological developments will eventually overwhelm humanity to where people are forced to evolve in certain ways to adapt to environmental changes. The prediction is that humans have to either naturally mutate or be surgically modified to eat plastic. And if somebody did undergo surgical procedures to alter the metabolism system, the changes will be passed onto their offspring.

The prediction might be a far-fetched idea and sound like a commentary on our poor industrial practices, but then again, humans are biological creatures whose bodies naturally evolve to fit the environment. It’s the oldest method of survival, and one that definitely still applies no matter how sophisticated we think we are now. A scary, bizarre, and terrible prediction indeed, but someone has to say it.

Notable Mentions

Other sci-fi horror films from 2022, including Nope, Prey, and Significant Other also present their predictions about the possibility of aliens contacting humans on Earth. While the prediction itself can be accurate, humans don’t really have control over how it may happen in the future. It all depends on the aliens to decide whether they do want to visit us and what they’re planning to do when they’re here.

We think great sci-fi films are both prescient and fantastical. Also, horror films are often the most enjoyable when they play with our collective societal fears. When the two genres blend and try to predict our future, it’s likely they deliver some terrifying visions about it. Regardless of the predictions, however, we should be able to enjoy all movies simply as virtual laboratories in which we can imagine both the best and worst scenarios through the screen, while keeping ourselves comfortable in a fun and safe environment.

Do some films really predict the future intentionally or just coincidence? What’s the craziest, out-of-this-world sci-fi predictions you’ve seen in films? We’d love to hear from you.

Other Things You Might Want to Know

Did the 1998 film “Enemy of the State” really predict government surveillance?

Well, you need to understand that some films take their premises to the extreme, and Enemy of the State is one of those films. Back then in 1998, it depicted a future where the government could track every single citizen with the use of cell phones, GPS, and satellites. It’s a reality today.