Appofeniacs (2025) Review

Chris Marrs Piliero’s riotous treatment of the dangers of deepfake technology begins with a helpful definition of apophenia, which is “the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things,” which suggests that Appofeniacs itself will spool through a series of events which have ultimately no connective tissue. This is not the case, as the degrees of separation between the various characters will eventually be revealed as being a smaller number than first thought.

Audio of a couple in the throes of sexual ecstasy is heard before the fade in on James, who it turns out is watching porn on his mobile phone and realising that the male half of the action is his friend Chase (Amogh Kapoor) and, disturbing, his female partner happens to be James’ girlfriend Ali (Scarlett DeMeo). Devastated the revelation, he waits for Ali to return home and to say the subsequent confrontation goes badly is something of an understatement, which leads James to head for where Chase is annoying undocumented immigrant Stolleto (Massi Pregoni), manga cosplay fanatic Poppy (Simran Jehani) and her unhinged husband Banks (Michael Abbot Jr.). Oh yes, there’s also Texas Tim (Will Brandt), whose taxi service extends beyond merely making sure Poppy arrives at her designated location.

What this group of people don’t realise is that their lives are being disrupted in the most irresponsible way by Duke (Aaron Holliday), a lowlife who has discovered an app which will allow him to gain revenge on the people who he perceives to have wronged him. Two cases in point are the artist Clinto Binto (Sean Gunn) who won’t start work on a piece for Duke until he gets paid and Lazzy (Paige Searcy) who had the temerity to annoy him in a queue at a coffee shop. In addition to Duke’s obsession with manipulating the truth for shits and giggles, he has real world problems in the shape of Cedrick (Jermaine Fowler), an associate to whom Duke owns money.

Lazzy discovers an online clip of someone who looks very much her like being extremely racist and Clinto is blissfully unaware that he’s been telling the whole of cyberspace that the banking system is corrupt and that his entire savings are kept in his home. Naturally, this is not going to go well for either of those folks but what Duke doesn’t care about is how everyone in the circle of the target of his misdeeds is also going to be affected by his cavalier attitude to the life of others.

The overlapping, interlocking narratives, pop culture references and side conversations about everyday matters have more than a flavour of Tarantino, even going so far as to include a plot point involving a physical copy of Django Unchained and an updated – and, it has to be said, extremely amusing – discussion of tipping culture. Mr. Pink would be proud. Even so, this has the feel of inspiration rather than slavish copy, which leads to Appofeniacs heading down its own twisted and far more violent route.

You may not get Chekhov’s Gun in this one but what you get is Chekhov’s Glue and Chekhov’s Ridiculously Oversized Blade, both used with startlingly gory impact. The gruesome moments in this film hit hard, boosted by excellent prosthetic effects and either a genuine affection for protagonists who are being destroyed due to the over-sensitive lashing out of an irredeemable scumbag or a hankering for seeing bad guys being splattered in glorious colour.

In terms of the cast, Gunn is the immediate draw and he brings a likeable, laid back charm to the proceedings but he’s ably assisted by a group of performers whose dramatic and comedic chops are more than up to the task. Holliday is the epitome of entitled, tech literate bros who believe that the world owes them something. I’m sure he’s a really nice guy IRL but his character got under my skin in a way that made me want the very worst things to happen to him. Well played, sir.

As with any anthology, or kind of anthology in this case, each separate story – or kind of separate story in this case – your mileage will vary as to whether you’re looking for gradually building nightmare, weird sex stuff or home invasion going astonishingly wrong. Admit it, you went back to check I’d written “weird sex stuff.” Calm your jets. It’s there, it isn’t particularly explicit but, in keeping with quite a lot of this movie, it is shamelessly funny and also very wrong indeed.

Very much like Texas Tim, there are choices to make in taking the journey with Appofeniacs. You may want to jump out along the way but you’d be missing one hell of a ride. It’ll make you laugh; it’ll make you nervous, it’ll make you wince. One thing not being deepfaked here is the fun you’re going to have.

Movie Rating: