| DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Hooroo Jackson |
Release date |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $405 [1] |
DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict is a 2024 American animated film directed by Hooroo Jackson. It is the first AI animated feature film [2] [3] [4] and the first AI anime feature film. It premiered on July 3, 2024 and was released on July 26, 2024 on Prime Video, receiving a Blu-ray release on August 31, 2024. [5]
Sophomore Betty Gray's romance with Duchamps De Ve, the leader of the banned occult group Dread Club, spirals out of control when a rival from his past accuses him of being a vampire. As Duchamps fights to clear his name in court, Betty must race to prove his innocence, while facing an onslaught of hate from those who brand him as a monster.
The film was made entirely by Jackson, directing the film for $405 between February and July 2024 using only AI technology for sound, music, performances, imagery and animation. It also includes experiments with AI editing. [1]
Following its July 26, 2024 release, DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict won Best Animated Film at the Kraken International Film Festival [6] and Best Director at the Miami Street International Film Festival. [7] It was also featured at the AI Film Awards in Venice and the Burano Film Festival.
Jackson documented the entire production in Artificial Imagination: The Making of "DreadClub" (2024). The book presents his complete LLM dialogues across the six-month production of DreadClub. [8]
Rotten Tomatoes reports that three out of four surveyed critics gave the film a positive review. [9] Martin Carr wrote, "DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict is an animated A.I. feature film that takes movie making to another level. Writer-director Hooroo Jackson has fashioned something unique with this Gothic horror romance, that not only feels cinematic, but proves to be truly engaging." [10] Bobby LePire of Film Threat praised the film, writing, "This is an intriguing first step into the potential of artificial intelligence in filmmaking. More importantly, it highlights Jackson as a talented filmmaker with style." [11] Film critic Ronak Kotecha commended the film's storytelling elements, noting, "On the whole, the viewer is assured of an engaging pageant of myth, mystery and melodrama." [12] By contrast, William Schwartz of Book & Film Globe criticized the film’s storytelling and pace, stating, “The characters never, ever stop talking. Not even to take a breath.” [13]
The film’s release sparked considerable controversy on social media. Film programmer and critic Rafa Sales Ross amplified debate in a widely shared thread after stating she’d been approached by the director claiming to have made “the first fully AI-animated feature.” [14] In the same conversation, critic Drew McWeeny wrote that he would “never review an AI film of any kind.” [15] According to Jackson’s own account, the fallout led to days of harassment and the banning of his films on Letterboxd, Reddit, and TMDB. [8]
Debate also centered on the “first AI animated feature” claim. After another film was initially described as first, a subsequent Forbes correction acknowledged that DreadClub had been released months earlier. [3] YouTuber Saberspark criticized the “first AI movie” claim and argued the work fell short due to technological limitations. [16] Jackson rebutted in his essay “AI Films Are Films,” contending that DreadClub is a 100% AI feature, that early limitations reflect the state of the art at the time, and that no contemporaneous fully AI features appeared, granting DreadClub both chronological and technological primacy; he further argued that professional reviews for DreadClub surpassed the appraisal of any hybrid AI features released later. [17]