I recently went to LA and saw an abundance of Waymo’s driving around. While I didn’t ride in one myself, I do often wonder what that feels like — being driven around by a machine with no human driver. That’s scary enough, but tied in with its programming going haywire and a killer on the loose like in Screamify’s newest vertical horror series Autonomous, the idea gets way more frightening.
A couple boards a Gomo โ a self-driving rideshare cab โ only to find themselves trapped with no way out. 16 episodes of pure claustrophobic terror.
Autonomous, IMDB
Amy (Erin รine) and Derek (Domenic Jungling) enter a Gomo and we immediately know something is wrong. They have been arguing about life, their relationship, and bygone times. Soon, though, the car makes a change and drives where it shouldn’t be going; Amy and Derek try to change routes and exit the vehicle to no avail. Then they notice a menacing figure outside of the car.
Nothing is more simple than not being able to escape a threat, and Autonomous gives us exactly that. It lures us in and makes us feel for its characters by providing some juicy drama, then throws in the horror with a monster hell bent on killing them. We hear stories about electronic cars not being able to be unlocked by passengers, and then there’s worry about an AI takeover, so the scares here aren’t unfounded. If that doesn’t scare you, there’s always the creature in the woods. I wouldn’t say that Autonomous was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, but it did keep my attention well enough and provide a new setting via the Gomo.
Now for the platform itself. Screamify is a streaming app that highlights independent filmmakers and their work while also breaking new grounds with their vertical-format “Micro Horrors,” of which Autonomous is the flagship original. I watched this series on three different devices: phone, tablet, and desktop. All three worked flawlessly with little-to-no load time and high quality playback. In terms of going from one episode to another, all I had to do is swipe. For younger generations, vertical horror fits right into the zeitgeist with its familiar feel and timing to social media (reels, shorts, and the like). For older generations like myself, it was still easy, though you’d have to convince me pretty hard to drop the widescreen format altogether. Autonomous was very well-made and on the same level of other features, shorts, and series I review, but what gives me pause is the vertical aspect. I do appreciate the inclusion and ease of which more filmmakers can get their work out to the masses through apps like this, however I do worry about issues like attention span shortening in a social media-heavy world that we have now.
That said, Autonomous isn’t cut up into little pieces bookended by titles and credits. It flows from one segment to another effortlessly, making these 16 episodes feel more cohesive and akin to one product rather than many. I really had no need for the swiping action except to test it, but I will say it made it a lot easier to scan through certain segments for a second look.
Autonomous was a fun short series that acts as a trailblazer for indie horror. With new ideas both off screen (the self-driving cars) and on-screen (vertical format), this Micro Horror original may be just the thing to get more viewers watching horror, all while providing yet another outlet for creatives and filmmakers. Easy on the screams but heavy on the dreams, I’d say.
Autonomous is streaming now on Screamify. Follow them on Instagram for more micro and vertical horror.
