The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
Tau
Science Fiction · Thriller · Horror · 2018
Held captive in a futuristic smart house, a woman hopes to escape by befriending the A.I. program that controls the house.
Movie details
Tau
“No bars. No guards. No escape.”
2018 Science Fiction · Thriller · Horror 1h 37m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
5.8 / 10
36.9K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
30 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
43 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.2 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
Held captive in a futuristic smart house, a woman hopes to escape by befriending the A.I. program that controls the house.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Tau?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Prestige Tourist
“You like your greatness pre-approved.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
The Cell
Horror · 2000
A psychotherapist journeys inside a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.
Double Blind
Horror · 2024
After an experimental drug trial goes awry, the test subjects face a terrifying side effect: if you fall asleep you die. Trapped in an isolated facility, panic ensues as they try to escape and somehow stay awake.
The Resurrected
Horror · 1991
Charles Dexter Ward, a wealthy scientist, uses an ancient diary and human remains to begin a terrifying and bloody pursuit for immortality.
Containment
Thriller · 2015
Neighbors in a block wake one morning to find they have been sealed inside their apartments. Can they work together to find out why? Or will they destroy each other in their fight to escape?
Soulm8te
Horror · 2026
After a ruthless tech giant acquires a small robotics company, a grieving engineer is tasked with testing their new AI companion. But when he attempts to reprogram her to be a truly sentient soulmate, she develops needs of her own—unleashing a relentless spree of precision-engineered mayhem.
Afraid
Horror · 2024
Curtis Pike and his family are selected to test a new home device: a digital assistant called AIA. AIA observes the family's behaviors and begins to anticipate their needs. And she can – and will – make sure nothing – and no one – gets in her family's way.
Morgan
Horror · 2016
A corporate risk-management consultant must determine whether or not to terminate an artificial being's life that was made in a laboratory environment.
Subservience
Horror · 2024
With his wife out sick, a struggling father brings home a lifelike AI, only to have his self-aware new help want everything her new family has to offer... Like the affection of her owner and she'll kill to get it.
Companion
Horror · 2025
During a weekend getaway at a secluded lakeside estate, a group of friends finds themselves entangled in a web of secrets, deception, and advanced technology. As tensions rise and loyalties are tested, they uncover unsettling truths about themselves and the world around them.
Deadly Friend
Horror · 1986
When tragedy strikes his remarkable robot and the beautiful girl next door, lonely teenage genius Paul tries to save them by pushing technology beyond its known limits into a terrifying new realm.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Federico D'Alessandro
Written by
Noga Landau
Maika Monroe
Julia
Ed Skrein
Alex Upton
Gary Oldman
Tau (voice)
Fiston Barek
Subject 2
Ivana Živković
Subject 1
Paul Leonard Murray
Chief Operating Officer
Dragoljub Ljubičić
Executive 1
Court is in session
Put Tau on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Prestige Tourist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.