Latency Film Review Automated Gaming In The Future

Directed by James Croke with his first feature film, Latency sets the stage for the future of gaming. In the opening scenes Hana is a fit, adrenaline junkie with a high-tech skill of testing out games filled with alien monsters. Blending the type of virtual reality tech that allows immersion into the platform game being used, Latency is the type of film that blends fantasy and reality to set the scene for a girl with acute agoraphobia.

Watching her struggle to receive a package delivery that requires some level of human contact for a signature on its receipt makes a quick connection to the degree of the disorder Hana is dealing with. Her best friend Jen is her link to the external world that Hana wants nothing to do with. What she does like is Gaming and she is extremely good at it. Picking up slight tremors of in-game performance, Latency doesn’t explain why Hana is falling behind with the rent.

The apartment has an unseen building manager who comes to collect a few times during the tight 93-minute runtime. One could assume it’s because her apartment is kitted with everything you could imagine fit for any discerning gamer. Fortunately for Hana, she is first in line to trial a new innovative device that uses artificial intelligence that taps into your brain giving you telepathic ability for anything electronic.

Mind Reading Technology – Latency 2024

Because her building manager wants money she doesn’t have, as soon as she begins using Omnia the capabilities of the device drop an opportunity into her lap. As a professional gamer, a competition is about to start with massive prize money. Her friend Jen provides her with the human interaction she requires and is on board for entering to assist with the overnight shifts keeping up with the comp.

Latency is a confusing film. Tying Hana’s agoraphobia into an AI world within a low-budget schema makes great use of resources. The title uses its single location to tighten the stronghold on the legitimacy of its use because it never has to show the viewer the outside landscape. Red flags about operating this new obscure connector that is about as invasive as a hair comb. Clipped into the back of Hana’s hair, it soon instructs her to sync up with it and testing is a rigorous and time-consuming task that takes days to complete.

The confusion sets in when the game and reality begin to overlap with creepy supernatural elements that stem from Omnia. Compounded by a family history of generational agoraphobia, Hana’s mental health slips rapidly when the competition is in full swing. A young boy appears in the hallway and a motherly figure can be seen in the background at various times. The atmosphere has all it needs to be tense and foreboding but without context early on, Latency is a movie that saves what you need to know for its final moments.

But, until then, Hana and Jen settle into a challenge of high-tech gaming action as she hits her stride using the neurologically smart setup. Omnia’s rigorous testing knows so much about her that even her pain receptors have been set for use.

When Gaming Becomes an Addiction

Without spoiling (I’ll include some below) Latency pushes past the present and flings Hana into a future where all her goals have been ticked off but the past has been ignored. In a similar ethos to Hana’s own life, the technology that swallows her up and uses it for its own undisclosed motives as a plot device to highlight the stranglehold of mental illness. Because the approach is not new and the complexity of the storyline is hard to follow, not everything it intended is clear.

Performances are good with Hana’s character played by Sasha Luss (The Last Front) being believable to watch. Jen is played by Alexis Ren (The Enforcer) who brings a light fun energy to the serious undertone. I do have to discuss this one scene though where Hana is looking for Jen in the small apartment and walks into the bathroom saying;

“That’s it, I’m coming in, I hope you’re not doing what I think you’re doing in there.”

Quote from Latency 2024

What was she expecting when she went in?

There are moments with great energetic visuals which I wish had been utilised more instead of the idea that is more commonly known. Is there a ghost in the machine or is this what happens when technology can read your mind and use you for what it believes you think you want? A great concept that some will love and others will turn off about halfway through. If you want to know how Latency ends, see below.

Having a PG-13 rating and a horror subtext means Latency never gets heavy on the violence or the gore but it can be unsettling at times given creepy visuals.

The title was released on June 14th, 2024, and is available to watch on all the usual platforms as a rental. For more ways to watch Latency, visit your favorite streaming device when it becomes available. The film is distributed by Lionsgate Films and was provided as a screener for editorial use.

Where to Watch Latency

Latency is streaming on: