Don’t piss on an AI drone. That’s the first lesson learned in Peter Webber’s goofy thriller DRAGN (I think it’s all caps — it stands for Defense Reaction and Ground Neutralization). After a group of “weapons research division” personnel lose control of said drone during a training exercise in the middle of the woods, it kills them all and goes rogue. Years later, it spots folks on a team-building retreat. Mayhem ensues. If you’re up for “switch-your-brains-off”, “Chat-GPT-written script” entertainment, this cinematic bot hits the target.
After being reprimanded by their boss, a group — including the hapless Tom (James Paxton), the seductress Adele (Lilly Krug), and the dominant/toxic Daniel (Carlos Bardem) — embarks on a journey deep into the woods. They are led by the somewhat suspicious, no-nonsense “bot wrestler” / AI code writer Jacob (Jadran Malkovich). As our heroes break camp, “get lit” (something I would advise the viewers to do), and indulge in soapy drama, the evil drone observes them menacingly from afar.
Some gutted animals and mutilated human corpses later, the drone starts chasing them around, zapping them with its lasers when not riddling them with bullets. More secrets/betrayals surface, folks get lit on fire, impaled, and a new character emerges who may or may not be helpful.
“It’s always learning, evolving. Now it’s in combat mode,” states Zoja. Uh-oh, not good. With all due respect to screenwriters Barry Hutchinson and Alexander Gordon Smith, so many lines (hilariously) fall flat on their a***s: “Whatever this is… It’s happening to all of us…” a character scolds the group at one point. “So just stop waving your cocks around and grow up.” When Adele sees the drone, she points, mouth agape: “What is that?” “You don’t want to wait to find out,” comes the reply. “It’s just malfunctioning tech. We can deal with this,” one of our heroes states reassuringly after the malfunctioning tech (um, spoiler alert, I guess) has sadistically butchered most of them. “You’re fired,” the drone quips before showering Tom with bullets.
“Some gutted animals and mutilated human corpses later, the drone starts chasing them around…”
Thing is, they could have gotten away with the cheese if there were a modicum of incisiveness here, say a thinly-veiled commentary on the current state of AI and where it’s heading, or if it were a satire in the vein of Severance. Instead, you get exactly what you paid for: a killer drone on the loose, hunting down victims in mildly imaginative ways for the duration of the feature.
The actors do what they can with the silly lines and actually seem to have fun, especially Bardem, who chews into his role like a vulture. James Paxton makes for a compelling, if one-dimensional, nerd. Lilly Krug’s timing is spot-on — too bad her character is slut-shamed throughout the narrative, this being her only discernible feature. Cinematographer Vladimir Ilic scores major points for his crisp visuals, as does composer Alex Heffes for the ominous score. Also, major kudos to the make-up effects department — the gore, although infrequent, looks fantastic.
DRAGN defines what used to be called a “straight-to-VOD” feature — the kind of midnight movie best enjoyed with lowered expectations and altered states of mind. It won’t linger in the memory or say much about anything, but its unabashed silliness may be exactly what stoners and B-movie devotees are looking for.
"…the kind of midnight movie best enjoyed with lowered expectations and altered states of mind..."
