(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A thought-provoking exploration of our growing reliance on technology and AI, raising ethical questions about the future of humanity.”
It’s been said that the only constant in the universe is change.
What this means to us as human beings is that we live our lives in a never-ending state of flux. The technology we use today will only be as good as we’re capable of designing and implementing; and its legacy will ultimately be having served as little more than inspiration for devices, gizmos, and gadgets yet to come. Of course, how we use these handle little machines is what embodies them with either goodness or villainy, and I always encourage folks to keep that in mind before they rush about screaming at the top of their lungs that the sky is falling.
Still, as long as there has been technology, there have been stewards warning us against its usage. Did you know that way, way, way back when at the dawn of electricity, there were fearmongers who actually insisted that power would be leaking like water from unused sockets? Mind you: these same charlatans made a small fortune selling artificial plugs to ‘cap’ off such dangerous streams. Did you know that physicians and psychologists of the same era warned that the eventual reliance on such new improvements to one’s living stature threatened to create a race of brainless people? They argued that our minds didn’t possess the capability to adapt to such inventions, and the end result foreshadowed that our nervous systems could collapse from the excess stimulation.
Well, the latest and greatest threat to life as we know it these days remains the unchecked expansion of Artificial Intelligence. Machines, you know, don’t have the same respect for life, liberty, and happiness as humans do. They’ll steal your career right out from under you, and they won’t think twice about the addictions to technology they cause to your friends, children, and neighbors. The addition of greater and greater automation to the world-at-large means that we, as a species, will slowly start to lose the skills and abilities that made our race rise up out of the swamps and evolve into upright, forwardly mobile citizens. Eventually, once they’ve grown tired of our mere presence, these machines will band together and eradicate us from existence, leaving us with no one to blame but ourselves for the sheer lack of foresight to prognosticate our very doom.
It’s into this territory that Tech Noir thrillers like Blade Runner (1982), The Terminator (1984), and Minority Report (2002) attempt to educate and entertain audiences to the seriousness of the risks posed; and storytellers near and far have, as of late, begun exploring such treachery again. 2025’s C.O.G. – directed by Tommy Savas from a script by Angie Simms – definitely follows in the footsteps of those bigger films but in a vastly smaller way, casting its stable of characters as a crew committed to launching their latest A.I. initiative – COGnitive – into the consumer marketplace even though it hasn’t endured the necessary testing to insure its safety. But up’n’coming CEO Ethan Conway (played by Noel Fisher) is willing to risk it all not only because he believes in the product but also because the product has achieved a cunning level of sentience as has convinced him the time is right to strike.
As one might imagine in this curious state of circumstances, COGnitive has really only brainwashed Ethan into doing its bidding; and eventually COG’s software designer – Kaya Cole (Piper Curda) – realizes that all is not right behind the curtain in their man-made kingdom of OZ. However, what happens in films of this sort – some might disagree, but I’d call them exploitation though not with the usual negative inferences – is that the cast needs to be filled with victims filling out time whilst waiting their respective demise: KJ (Ritesh Rajan), Jude (Lucius Baybak), and Liza (Natasha Behnam) make the best of their short-lived careers in this even though you’ll likely see them as little more than corpses-in-wait, each one going down more bloodily than the last.
Where C.O.G. earns points is that it never tries to be anything more than what it is, that being a Horror film with some minor social commentary thrown in largely for comic relief. (Think what you may but only the best Horror films lampoon our cultural sensibilities and get away with it.) The age workspace is vilified for having such spaces as a Zoom Room (for digital conferencing), Meditation Safe Space (for solo introspection), and even a Crying Room (for time-outs when meditation clearly no longer works). Employees are enticed to work beyond the limits of human endurance with additional bonuses and/or stock options, both of which appear to be easily revoked if the higher ups are no longer happy with the performance. Folks are vaping on the job, some are simply gaming in V.R. goggles while no one else is watching, and the endless prattle via online messaging APPs has fundamentally made water cooler visits as extinct as the dinosaurs. While these tools have proven their worth, I’ve no doubt our technological forefathers are still rolling around in their graves.
There’s also a bit that gets modest screen time regarding contemporary offices: Liza chooses to adorn her multiple flatscreens with curious motivational images meant to help the lady maximize her attention and effort. In between her little bits of code she’s told to ‘Focus,’ ‘Relax,’ or ‘Achieve’ against a backdrop of spiraling graphics. (FYI: these are paraphrased as I don’t recall the specific words used.) Cleverly, C.O.G. employs this tactic not unlike what the Horror Master John Carpenter did in 1988’s subversive They Live wherein Nada (Roddy Piper) could put on a pair of sunglasses to reveal commands like ‘Obey,’ ‘Consume,’ and ‘Conform.’ It’s this exact kind of subconscious brainwashing that inevitably ties in with how the C.O.G.’s A.I. has Liza commit her suicidal hara-kiri, and it’s this one little throughline which strongly suggests how critics of Artificial Intelligence suggest we may already have gone too far … without our even knowing it yet. That’s smart writing, folks, and it shows.
And because C.O.G. is, most assuredly, Horror, there has to be a ‘Final Girl,’ and no one is more capable than Kaya. After all, only she had the moxie to build this Frankenstein A.I. in the first place, so the task necessarily falls onto her capable shoulders in the last reel. Still, C.O.G. does what a lot of thrillers of this type do – it employs a double-ending wherein the real culprit gets exposed – and some of its modest originality might seem lost in the shuffle to change things up too lazily. There’s something to be said about efficiently getting from start to finish which the flick does quite well up until that second finish; and I’m not sure the redux was as grand in presentation as it probably was in screenwriter Simms’ head.
C.O.G. was produced by Reckless Content, Reckless Tortuga Productions, and Bridge & Tunnel Films. A quick search of Google.com assures me that the film is available for purchase or rental digitally effective September 25, 2026. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I can still assure readers that the provided sights and sounds are quite good throughout, with a fair amount of practical effects making blood splatter as good as it gets. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Alas, I watched this one via streaming, so there were no special features under consideration.
Recommended.
As tends to happen in movies, only the dumbest people seem to work around super-intelligent machines, and C.O.G. (2025) plays up the Silicon Valley stereotype to reasonable success here. Eventually, script finally gets it right: only those who allow themselves to be fully subverted by technology will suffer at those … erm … tiny 3D-printed hands, so all of us should rise up when the time is right to throw off the shackles of Artificial Intelligence before all is lost. As a whole, it’s a pretty ruthless 84 minute – an admirable trait – working in just enough character moments and comedy to easily pass the time. But there’s the added dimension here of the film’s message – A.I. is bad, don’t you know – and that makes this one better than your average tech start-up. Or is that ‘send-up’?
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Brainstorm Media provided me with complimentary streaming access to C.O.G. (2025) by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A thought-provoking exploration of our growing reliance on technology and AI, raising ethical questions about the future of humanity.”
It’s been said that the only constant in the universe is change.
What this means to us as human beings is that we live our lives in a never-ending state of flux. The technology we use today will only be as good as we’re capable of designing and implementing; and its legacy will ultimately be having served as little more than inspiration for devices, gizmos, and gadgets yet to come. Of course, how we use these handle little machines is what embodies them with either goodness or villainy, and I always encourage folks to keep that in mind before they rush about screaming at the top of their lungs that the sky is falling.
Still, as long as there has been technology, there have been stewards warning us against its usage. Did you know that way, way, way back when at the dawn of electricity, there were fearmongers who actually insisted that power would be leaking like water from unused sockets? Mind you: these same charlatans made a small fortune selling artificial plugs to ‘cap’ off such dangerous streams. Did you know that physicians and psychologists of the same era warned that the eventual reliance on such new improvements to one’s living stature threatened to create a race of brainless people? They argued that our minds didn’t possess the capability to adapt to such inventions, and the end result foreshadowed that our nervous systems could collapse from the excess stimulation.
Well, the latest and greatest threat to life as we know it these days remains the unchecked expansion of Artificial Intelligence. Machines, you know, don’t have the same respect for life, liberty, and happiness as humans do. They’ll steal your career right out from under you, and they won’t think twice about the addictions to technology they cause to your friends, children, and neighbors. The addition of greater and greater automation to the world-at-large means that we, as a species, will slowly start to lose the skills and abilities that made our race rise up out of the swamps and evolve into upright, forwardly mobile citizens. Eventually, once they’ve grown tired of our mere presence, these machines will band together and eradicate us from existence, leaving us with no one to blame but ourselves for the sheer lack of foresight to prognosticate our very doom.
It’s into this territory that Tech Noir thrillers like Blade Runner (1982), The Terminator (1984), and Minority Report (2002) attempt to educate and entertain audiences to the seriousness of the risks posed; and storytellers near and far have, as of late, begun exploring such treachery again. 2025’s C.O.G. – directed by Tommy Savas from a script by Angie Simms – definitely follows in the footsteps of those bigger films but in a vastly smaller way, casting its stable of characters as a crew committed to launching their latest A.I. initiative – COGnitive – into the consumer marketplace even though it hasn’t endured the necessary testing to insure its safety. But up’n’coming CEO Ethan Conway (played by Noel Fisher) is willing to risk it all not only because he believes in the product but also because the product has achieved a cunning level of sentience as has convinced him the time is right to strike.
As one might imagine in this curious state of circumstances, COGnitive has really only brainwashed Ethan into doing its bidding; and eventually COG’s software designer – Kaya Cole (Piper Curda) – realizes that all is not right behind the curtain in their man-made kingdom of OZ. However, what happens in films of this sort – some might disagree, but I’d call them exploitation though not with the usual negative inferences – is that the cast needs to be filled with victims filling out time whilst waiting their respective demise: KJ (Ritesh Rajan), Jude (Lucius Baybak), and Liza (Natasha Behnam) make the best of their short-lived careers in this even though you’ll likely see them as little more than corpses-in-wait, each one going down more bloodily than the last.
Where C.O.G. earns points is that it never tries to be anything more than what it is, that being a Horror film with some minor social commentary thrown in largely for comic relief. (Think what you may but only the best Horror films lampoon our cultural sensibilities and get away with it.) The age workspace is vilified for having such spaces as a Zoom Room (for digital conferencing), Meditation Safe Space (for solo introspection), and even a Crying Room (for time-outs when meditation clearly no longer works). Employees are enticed to work beyond the limits of human endurance with additional bonuses and/or stock options, both of which appear to be easily revoked if the higher ups are no longer happy with the performance. Folks are vaping on the job, some are simply gaming in V.R. goggles while no one else is watching, and the endless prattle via online messaging APPs has fundamentally made water cooler visits as extinct as the dinosaurs. While these tools have proven their worth, I’ve no doubt our technological forefathers are still rolling around in their graves.
There’s also a bit that gets modest screen time regarding contemporary offices: Liza chooses to adorn her multiple flatscreens with curious motivational images meant to help the lady maximize her attention and effort. In between her little bits of code she’s told to ‘Focus,’ ‘Relax,’ or ‘Achieve’ against a backdrop of spiraling graphics. (FYI: these are paraphrased as I don’t recall the specific words used.) Cleverly, C.O.G. employs this tactic not unlike what the Horror Master John Carpenter did in 1988’s subversive They Live wherein Nada (Roddy Piper) could put on a pair of sunglasses to reveal commands like ‘Obey,’ ‘Consume,’ and ‘Conform.’ It’s this exact kind of subconscious brainwashing that inevitably ties in with how the C.O.G.’s A.I. has Liza commit her suicidal hara-kiri, and it’s this one little throughline which strongly suggests how critics of Artificial Intelligence suggest we may already have gone too far … without our even knowing it yet. That’s smart writing, folks, and it shows.
And because C.O.G. is, most assuredly, Horror, there has to be a ‘Final Girl,’ and no one is more capable than Kaya. After all, only she had the moxie to build this Frankenstein A.I. in the first place, so the task necessarily falls onto her capable shoulders in the last reel. Still, C.O.G. does what a lot of thrillers of this type do – it employs a double-ending wherein the real culprit gets exposed – and some of its modest originality might seem lost in the shuffle to change things up too lazily. There’s something to be said about efficiently getting from start to finish which the flick does quite well up until that second finish; and I’m not sure the redux was as grand in presentation as it probably was in screenwriter Simms’ head.
C.O.G. was produced by Reckless Content, Reckless Tortuga Productions, and Bridge & Tunnel Films. A quick search of Google.com assures me that the film is available for purchase or rental digitally effective September 25, 2026. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I can still assure readers that the provided sights and sounds are quite good throughout, with a fair amount of practical effects making blood splatter as good as it gets. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Alas, I watched this one via streaming, so there were no special features under consideration.
Recommended.
As tends to happen in movies, only the dumbest people seem to work around super-intelligent machines, and C.O.G. (2025) plays up the Silicon Valley stereotype to reasonable success here. Eventually, script finally gets it right: only those who allow themselves to be fully subverted by technology will suffer at those … erm … tiny 3D-printed hands, so all of us should rise up when the time is right to throw off the shackles of Artificial Intelligence before all is lost. As a whole, it’s a pretty ruthless 84 minute – an admirable trait – working in just enough character moments and comedy to easily pass the time. But there’s the added dimension here of the film’s message – A.I. is bad, don’t you know – and that makes this one better than your average tech start-up. Or is that ‘send-up’?
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Brainstorm Media provided me with complimentary streaming access to C.O.G. (2025) by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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