Robot Buddy Becomes Killer in Stunning Short Film

[Ddgafd]

I am going to say that the kid brought it down upon himself, but he's just a kid, so I guess his behaviour is understandable. Also, why didn't the cops do anything? You'd think they'd have guns or something. And why didn't the kid's parents hear him get made into meatballs? Because they were arguing? Bullshit, the screams would've been loud as hell.

 

[OldRat]

Well, that was effective.

As for Asimov's three laws of robotics, which basically boil down to "Don't kill a human, don't let a human die. You're the least important part in the equation of who survives and who doesn't", I kind of agree. Those are a good starting point. But you know, Blinky bugged out pretty badly, so maybe he wasn't exactly listening to Mr. Asimov. Considering how badly bugged out most software can be...
Although I'm pretty sure "can it cut up people and make them into meatballs?" is pretty high on the product testing list. Right alongside with "Is it armed with live ammo for its dual miniguns in a demonstration?" which Robocop seemed to have problems with.

On a sidenote, military robots and Asimov's three laws probably wouldn't go together all that well, meaning they'd be much more plausible candidates for wacky misundestandings and/or bugs causing casualties. And their saws are a bit bigger than Blinky's.

 

[Cymen]

A great little short film about a kid naively trying to fix his parents marriage with a robot "that brings the family together". Of couse he takes out all the neglect and fights of his parents on the robot. A classic example for the impact of violence (even verbal) on a child.
Sooo I blame the parents for all of this

 

[DeepwellBridge]

Really well done. It isn't anything new about our obvious fear of robots but it is quite well done.

 

[Thespian]

As the film went on, it gradually lost any subtlety... And was quite clichéd. Still a great creation however and very realistic.

 

[Archemetis]

The only thing that ruined it for me, was, besides the carving up part at the end the glaring error which is:

If both parents and the son are dead, who phoned the police?

You could argue that in a panic, one of parents phoned the police, but surely they would have mentioned that their Blinky had gone psycho...

The Police just strolled past him, like he's perfectly fine.

So did he call the police? If so, why? no one ordered him to...

They also make it pretty apparent that the futruistic windows are pretty sound-proof during the short. So unless he went across the street to say 'did I do good?' to the neighbours, I don't see how they showed up.

 

[Venereus]

I liked it a lot. And I also agree the door closing should have been the end of it. I was so creeped out by that door closing, the next shot was unnecesary. We had already got it.

The only thing that ruined it for me, was, besides the carving up part at the end the glaring error which is:

If both parents and the son are dead, who phoned the police?

You could argue that in a panic, one of parents phoned the police, but surely they would have mentioned that their Blinky had gone psycho...

The Police just strolled past him, like he's perfectly fine.

So did he call the police? If so, why? no one ordered him to...

Neighbours heard screaming?

 

[SimpleJack]

At first i was like, awww... the kid is treating his robot friend badly, an then i was like.. hm... where did the kid go-- oh...euh....meat balls....that made me feel really creepy, i need to go watch wall-e again...brb....

 

[Cypher10110]

I enjoyed the emotional undertones of the story. Arguing parents, boy having nowhere to vent his frustrations and fears. New toy doesn't change anything. In the end it lead to violence.

I think it was well written, and the effects were really great.

 

[rbstewart7263]

Actually I saw the kid not acting out of maturity but out of the same detached consumerism that comes from a broken home. When a kid like that(not too unlike myself when i was young) lives with parents that can throw you a toy like its nothing but God forbid actually learn to get along and see whats important in life; then typically One tends to reach out to other shallow ventures/materials to try and fill that hole.

 

[Grunt_Man11]

I saw this earlier today - well done, but the pay-off is weak. Where are the dead parents/dog/etc.? If I invest twelve minutes in a short film about a killer robot, I expect a little more horror and carnage. I mean, it's not like the fact he kills is a surprise to anyone watching the film - the shock needs to be in something else (although, I suppose the quality of the film could be counted as a shock).

*** All that is probably sounding too negative, though. I still liked it. ***

I think an increase in 'carnage' or 'gore' horror would have ruined the film.
The idea here, it seems, is that the robot is so clean, and helpful. The horror isn't in how it rips you apart brutally. It's how it does everything so mechanically. So matter of fact...and yet so innocently. I'm actually quite glad they didn't show anyone being killed by it, because quite frankly I'm surprised it could have caught anyone.

But, again, the horror isn't in it's abilities or the gore.
The horror here seems more based on the outcome of the dysfunctional family. I mean, a kid like that could have went and hurt his dog, or another animal, had the robot not been around. The starting of a serial killer. Instead, he took out his frustrations on the robot, causing it to malfunction, and another killer was made.

This is my interpretation, of course, but look at the film's focus: The mother and father presumably got married because they wanted to be together, but ended up fighting and breaking their marriage. The film opens up with the kid seeing something that he really wants, but you see the slow decay of those feelings, and the eventual out-right anger and hatred that boils out of the kid. It's a parallel to what he's seen his whole childhood. It's obvious the kid is damaged by his parents broken relationship, and in turn he damages his robot.

And what is the response? The kid actually shows more maturity then his parents, because he sees that it's time to let it go. That it's broken. But his parents are saying 'hes just making excuses because he wants a new one'. Can anyone else see the parallels to that and the parents marriage? They stay together despite it being obvious they the relationship is broken. And what is the result? Death. Had the robot not been there, it would have been a slow, internal death. A wasting of both husband and wife (And child) to their own dysfunction. But, with the robot, it turned into a literal, physical death.

Both are pretty horrible.

But maybe that's me. I'm probably over-analyzing it, but that's what I saw anyways.
It's a great short piece.
I think any longer and it would have worn thin, and if it was shorter it wouldn't have had the same impact.

I think all the English/Literature professors I had in college would give you an A+ for what you just said here.

It hits the nail right on the head.

 

[Tucker154]

That was quite scary, the worst of it all were the meatballs.

I thought that was a nice touch to it. It made me think that,not only is it following orders, but likes to follow them with some style.But ya,that was realy good. Wouldnt actualy mind seeing a full length movie of it.

 

[Discrodia]

Jesus fucking Christ.

I never thought introducing robots to the household could end well to begin with, and that's the problem when you give people who barely understand how a computer works access to an AI. I hope to god we can figure out some all-inclusive way to make sure the goals of robots never conflict with human survival, and if truly autonomous robots are ever introduced they should never be used in a battlefield role.

I may be some crazy bastard, but that movie made me feel more sick than any gore-drenched video game or war movie.

 

[Ashoten]

I love the way Blinkys cute little face can become terrifying as soon as he grabbed the electric food cutter. Punctuated with a relatively innocent phrase of "Ready or not here I come." it was so simple and subtle. If you want to be scary without jump scares this is the way to do it.

It is very easy to project human emotions onto pets and inanimate objects. This is even easier to do when the object is animate, has a friendly face, and is programed to sound happy. But computers "evolved" from a place where following commands is the primary function not concern for life. This short film does a good job of showing that clearly.

 

[Someone Depressing]

That was like Happy Tree Friends.
Really cute, to Pants-Wettingly disturbing...

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Damn, that was awesome. I completely forgot I have to do laundry...so damn you and thank you, Logan!

Blinky!, go wash my clothes!

Blinky: No problem!, you want me to wash these too? *holds shirts soaked in blood*

OT: That was simply amazing!, cute and creepy all at the same time. Poor Blinky, that kid was an asshole and had it coming. That movie also has my vote to become a full lenght film.

Haha, the little 'no problem' was cute. Made me feel sorry for him when the kid was being a douchebag.

 

[Crazy_Man_42]

And that's why you make the 3 laws like in I'Robot but then the robots in that one go haywired and start doing what their not suppose to.

At the part with the dinner I remembered Cartman from South Park and when he made that one kid eat his parents only in this its the other way around.

Also that was pretty darn scary, they should stop building the war machine because you just know that it will do the same thing as well but with heavy weaponry.

 

[hutchy27]

The only thing that ruined it for me, was, besides the carving up part at the end the glaring error which is:

If both parents and the son are dead, who phoned the police?

You could argue that in a panic, one of parents phoned the police, but surely they would have mentioned that their Blinky had gone psycho...

The Police just strolled past him, like he's perfectly fine.

So did he call the police? If so, why? no one ordered him to...

They also make it pretty apparent that the futruistic windows are pretty sound-proof during the short. So unless he went across the street to say 'did I do good?' to the neighbours, I don't see how they showed up.

If they were being murdered they might of shouted "Get Help!" or " phone the police or something in panic so he did as he was told. >

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

What's with all the people calling the kid a brat? He comes from a dysfunctional family and take his frustration out on what is, to all intents and purposes, a household utility. At no point is it suggested to have emotions (apart from the marketing). Heck, it's not like he actually attacks it or anything, he just gets pissed off with it because of it's relentlessly cheerful attitude when he's so misersble.

Also, to all you people saying "use the three laws of robotics, no problem". Well let's consider how hard it would be to implement in a fool proof manner:

1) How do you get a machine, something which by definition is not alive in the same sense we are, to understand death? You could set a strict mechanical definition such as "Never cause a human's circulatory system to cease functioning", but then it doesn't know the difference between a corpse with an electric current going through it and a living person. So just so long as it electrocutes people, it's fine...

2) How do you get it to understand the concept of 'harm'? That's much harder, and you'd better pray you get it right because otherwise the robot will see nothing wrong with stretching out a perpetual agonizing existence, so long as you don't die...

3) Least whimsical but most realistic concern: how do you program a perfect system? In the case of Blinky, you could say he cracks because he realises the problem between performing two mutually exclusive tasks, as given by the boy. He then decides that so long as he completes one task to the best of his ability, he has completed it as well as can be expected. He then applies this logic to the problem between Asimov's Laws and his order to kill people...

The only thing that ruined it for me, was, besides the carving up part at the end the glaring error which is:

If both parents and the son are dead, who phoned the police?

You could argue that in a panic, one of parents phoned the police, but surely they would have mentioned that their Blinky had gone psycho...

The Police just strolled past him, like he's perfectly fine.

So did he call the police? If so, why? no one ordered him to...

They also make it pretty apparent that the futruistic windows are pretty sound-proof during the short. So unless he went across the street to say 'did I do good?' to the neighbours, I don't see how they showed up.

Maybe Blinky phoned them. Programming the robot to phone the police in the case of an emergency seems like a pretty sensible. This would also explain why the police brush past him without thinking twice. Of course, Blinky doesn't question the source of the emergency, he just follows his programming...