RAPTUS (2025)

3 stars

4Digital Media. Digital. 27th January

Set in the near future – Sara (Ksenia Solo) lives in an advanced smart home. You know the kind that makes you coffee in the morning. Turns the lights on. Talks to you. So she is fine with tech.

Out for her morning run she is followed – in a tunnel she is attacked and raped.

Ten months later she is having therapy sessions via video call, to deal with the trauma. However, she isn’t making progress and can’t leave the house. Her therapist Dr Peterson (Christina Cox) suggests something new – addressing the trauma with a presence. A benign male in the house in the shape of a companion robot.

She uses her laptop to build her ideal roboman. A sort of more advanced Build a Bear complete with all the parts! She will control it with a pad which can adjust things – Manners, Charm, Seduction, Aggression (quite why these are the only parameters is never explained, except to service the plot).

Her handsome mech man arrives in a large carte – she decides to name him Raptus (Nolan Gerard Funk). She teaches him what she needs him to do so he can learn. However she still has flashbacks to the attack. Will she be tempted to turn up Seduction? He supposedly has settings which prevent him from hurting her. Of course you know with robots involved something’s going to go awry…

Several other films have explored robot companions in various ways, so certain aspects feel familiar, but this is a film exploring dealing with trauma as much as it is a sci fi thriller. Ksenia Solo plays the various emotions well with Funk having the more onerous task of acting robot like with his buff body and perfect hair. There are little touches of humour along the way. Leads to a wild ending.

Steve Kirkham