One of the biggest concerns that the ongoing Writers’ Strike is addressing is how AI was going to take away jobs from screenwriters who are already struggling to make ends meet. While the strike action unfolds, a Redditor shared some horror film ideas that were generated with ChatGPT, and perhaps writers don’t need to be all that concerned with AI encroaching on their creativity. Sure, these ideas look original at first, but upon closer inspection, one could sense that these stories already exist.
Reddit user u/No-News-2655 shared five “original” horror concepts on r/Horror that were AI-generated on r/horror to see if it’s any good at pitching movies. It came up with the following: A film involving murderous dolls that were possessed by murdered children, a doctor who’s actually spreading the illness rather than curing it, a musician that starts a deadly cult, a whirlpool that leads to another dimension, and a sentient fog that goes on a murder spree.
The author shared the prompt that was used to generate these stories, and believes that it turned out well. Interestingly, horror fans also loved these ideas and asked the author to make ChatGPT turn them into an actual story. Meanwhile, one Reddit user pointed out that the first premise could be based on an actual hut somewhere in Mexico City where random dolls were left behind. In the end, these premises have some legs to stand if executed well.
But if one could criticize, some of these pitches don’t really scream “horror,” especially the fourth film which leans more into sci-fi. Meanwhile, “Island of the Dolls” may sound original at first, but the moment I read “dolls are possessed by the spirits of children who were tragically killed on the island,” it instantly reminded me of Five Nights At Freddy’s, that’s currently in production, has an official release date, and a similar premise.
Perhaps the only original piece of horror that this AI generation was “Siren’s Call” since we rarely hear of many films that mix music with cults. But at the same time, it sounds like a more twisted take on the Pied Piper and was already used in ABC’s Once Upon A Time. This just proves AI can’t really come up with an original idea that doesn’t lean on existing media.
But just because AI can pitch some “great” movie ideas doesn’t mean that studios are likely to overly rely on ChatGPT to generate future movies and scripts. The Japanese anime industry faced backlash after Netflix experimented with AI to produce a short film. The AI was used to create background images and was argued to be a “helpful tool.”
AI could be useful to help spark inspiration, especially for those with writer’s block. But it shouldn’t be overly relied on, especially when it constantly takes information from already existing works. And with the writers’ strikes still ongoing, fans should be reminded that technology can’t replicate human emotion and AI shouldn’t be the “next best thing” when it comes to entertainment.