This post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror story is crying out for a proper adaptation

by Robert Scocchi
| Published 22 seconds ago

By now, we’ve all heard the usual doom talk about AI destroying humanity in some way, shape or form. from finisher and Matrix To the Dead Internet Theory and the bots on LinkedIn that offer jobs that require me to immediately hand over my Social Security number, my mother’s maiden name, and a list of fears just to “qualify” for an interview (read: scrape my data so I can make phone calls to someone named Eric, who apparently needs a $100,000 business loan), there’s no shortage of things to be afraid of.

At the top of the hill of horrific AI machinations is a short story called “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” written in 1967 by Harlan Ellison.

A bleak and terrifying future

I Have No Mouth, I Must Scream is set in an alternate timeline where the Cold War escalates into World War III, and focuses on five survivors: Penny, Gorister, Nimduk, Elaine, and narrator Ted. They are trapped inside a sentient supercomputer known as AM (originally the Allied Mastercomputer, later the Adaptive Manipulator, then the Aggressive Menace, and finally the incarnation of “I think, therefore I am”).

At the height of the war, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China all built massive data centers for their allied mainframe computers. It didn’t take long for these systems to merge into one sprawling underground network of endless corridors and server rooms.

AM holds a deep hatred for her creators for granting her limitless intelligence without the ability to create or experience life, and commits genocide against humanity, leaving only five people alive to keep within her labyrinthine tunnels.

Endless suffering

The horror of “I Have No Mouth, I Must Scream” is not limited to the physical or psychological torment that Penny, Gorister, Nimduk, Elaine, and Ted endure. It is a fact that there is no way to end their suffering.

They are kept on the brink of starvation and forced to search for questionable food sources scattered miles away, unable to die or end their misery through suicide. Their perception of time has been distorted at the whim of the AM, and its sole purpose is to make them suffer forever. After existing like this for an unknown period of time (decades, perhaps centuries), they lost their humanity and began to turn on each other. The result, as Ted’s increasingly unsettling narration tells it, is pure nightmare fuel.

Edits were made, but the full film was delayed

I Have No Mouth, I Must Scream has seen a few adaptations: a 1995 video game co-written by Ellison himself, and a 1996 comic version in 1996. Harlan Ellison’s Dream Passage, Volume Oneand a radio play for the BBC in 2002. But I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream was never made into a feature film or series. At just 36 pages, the story’s brevity leaves plenty of room for expansion while maintaining its existential horror. Ellison has proven this himself with the expansive narrative of video games, showing that a concept can evolve without losing its essence.

In my opinion, Fede Alvarez, Director of 2013 evil dead Remake and 2024 Alien: RomulusHe would be the perfect choice to bring Ellison’s vision to life. He has proven his ability to pay homage to the source material while injecting it with new, visceral energy, which is something this story requires.

I Have No Mouth, I Must Scream is more relevant now than it was nearly sixty years ago, and serves as a cautionary tale for our times; A brutal reminder of what can happen when human ambition and technology develop without any sense of empathy. A proper film adaptation would be more than just a timely horror film. This will be the last warning shot fired before the Internet swallows us whole.

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