Cassandra Review: A Thrilling Exploration of Women and AI Robots

Cassandra Review | Leisurebyte

Director: Benjamin Gutsche

Date Created: 2025-02-06 13:30

Editor's Rating:
4

When Samira and her family moved into the first smart home built in the 1970s, she thought that life would get easier and she would find some soul in its walls. However, what she didn’t anticipate was, after the death of the original inhabitants, the smart home assistant, Cassandra, has been waiting for someone else to bind herself to. And now that she has what she has been looking for for decades, she isn’t going to let it slip out of its grasp.

The sci-fi thriller series has 6 episodes, each with a runtime of around 50 minutes.

Cassandra Review

Sci-fi, psychological thriller and a women-led horror drama? Well, sign me up! Netflix’s Cassandra is a “haunted house” format show that starts off with a murdering robot and a new family walking into said death house after a few years. It reminded me of M3GAN but with less insane dancing and is thoroughly engaging through-and-through.

It’s clear from the start that the smart robot in the smart home is trying to take over Samira’s role in the family. It leaves breadcrumbs as to why the robot is doing what it’s doing and although most viewers would be able to figure out what’s about to happen, the series keeps us invested with its human stories and the relationships of the characters in the new home.

It helps that the family has a big tragedy to get over and that things are already rocky when they move into the house. Although they are a glittering sea of smiling faces at first, there’s clearly some tension in the air that one cannot ignore. The series does a good job of mixing the dread that is Cassandra with that of the family conflict — it doesn’t pour too much at once but at the same time the series keeps the pace moving at a decent rate. From the first episode itself, you see something going very wrong and it’s deliciously evil to watch.

Cassandra does a great job with the smart robot, in the sense that it looks thoroughly creepy. Unlike more modern and swanky AI-based movies and shows, there’s an old-world charm to the robot and thus, an odd sense of the unknown. What is this ancient device capable of? There’s also this chilling sensation of watching Cassandra the robot and Cassandra the person make choices that are nothing short of creepy. Shockingly effective, it does a great job of striking when the iron is hot and never leaves the opportunity to give us something that leaves us reeling.

Also Read: Invincible Season 3 Review: Thrilling Season Comes With Moral Dilemmas

The series introduces concepts surrounding women’s unseen labour at home and their self-worth which are important even in today’s world. Showcased mainly through flashbacks defining Cassandra’s origins and her human life, the series does an impactful job of showcasing how, when our lives are tied to the people around us, things go haywire when that tether is snapped. In the present, it’s interesting how no one believes Samira when she mentions her doubts about Cassandra, showcasing that women are still not given the benefit of the doubt, regardless of how insane the story might be.

I think the biggest problem that I have with movies and shows of the genre is that they showcase these people as completely clueless. Sure, most people would be thrilled to live in a smart home at first but most families communicate somewhat and if this robot tells an innocent child something bad about a parent, I would guess that the child would let it spill at some point. I think this trope is unbelievable and impossible in most households and I wonder why this is constantly added to make things spicier.

Lavinia Wilson and Mina Tander are fantastic in this thriller series. Going head to head with each other, Tander is the scared and unwitting victim in this insane story while Wilson, as Cassandra, is fantastic as the creepy house robot with an ulterior motive. There’s a chill in her presence in the present and a threat of her mental stability disintegrating at any moment in the past. It really gets to you after a while.

Final Thoughts

Cassandra, on Netflix, is a thrilling ride from start to end. Although it has some tropes, it chilling enough to leave you hooked and paced well enough to make you binge. I think the runtime’s great as well and the series makes use of it with a tense story that is told and acted well. It’s an insane set of situations and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Also Read: The Åre Murders Review: Entertaining But Odd Format