Frankie Muniz takes on the role of a brilliant yet deeply troubled AI developer in Robert Rippberger’s Renner, a thriller that blends futuristic paranoia with classic psychological horror. As Renner, Muniz creates the ultimate digital assistant designed to make life more efficient, productive, and complete. The only problem? He has some serious unresolved mommy issues standing in the way.
Renner’s hyper-controlled world begins to shift when a new neighbor, Jamie, enters his life, bringing romance and disrupting his obsessive, rigid existence. As his OCD tendencies start to fade, so does his grip on reality, leading to a tense unraveling of control. The film carries strong Hitchcockian influences, with Muniz channeling a Norman Bates-meets-Willard level of social awkwardness. His dynamic with Marcia Gay Harden’s voice performance as Salenus, the ever-present AI assistant, helps maintain the film’s momentum, creating an eerie sense of isolation and dependence.
While the introduction of Jamie follows a familiar “girl-next-door” trope, Renner shifts the focus from romance to psychological turmoil, examining what happens when a man raised under total control experiences love for the first time. The film wears its Psycho inspirations on its sleeve, embracing the “mother-obsessed killer” tradition in a way that feels both unsettling and nostalgic.
The one area where Renner falls a bit short is its technology-driven horror. While it attempts to paint a near-future world where AI assistants hold immense power, it often feels more like a modern shut-in with a deep-cleaning obsession and an Amazon Prime account full of LED lights. The AI itself is less of a menacing force and more of a manifestation of Renner’s own inner demons, making it less of a tech-horror film and more of a psychological thriller with AI as a backdrop.
Despite that, Renner taps into a universal fear—not technology itself, but the human minds that shape it. As AI thrillers continue to evolve, one thing remains clear: our greatest technological fears are still, and always will be, human-made.
3/5
Directed by: Robert Rippberger
Written by: Luke Medina and Martin Medina
Starring: Frankie Muniz, Violett Beane, Taylor Gray, and Marcia Gay Harden
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