These AI-Generated Short Films Will Give You Nightmares

A screengrab from the AI short film The Slug. | TCL+

TCL+, a streaming service from television manufacturer TCL, has revealed a series of AI-generated movies that it believes heralds a new era of filmmaking similar to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

The movie will stream on TCL’s free service and the AI movies will also be a way of delivering targeted advertising. According to a report in 404 Media, the Chinese company are unafraid of a backlash since it has no history in Hollywood and therefore has “fewer bridges to burn.”

Some of the films have been released on YouTube and they include The Slug which is about a woman whose health deteriorates until she turns into a slug. It’s slightly reminiscent of the 2024 Demi Moore movie The Substance except the characters can’t talk on-camera and suffer from inconsistency issues.

Speaking of actors, there are human actors in these movies. TCL’s chief content officer for North America Chris Regina tells 404 Media that the scripts were written by humans along with the music as well. Then there were the directors, editors, and AI prompters who put the AI films together.

Another of the films, The Audition, actually focuses on a human actor going into a casting call and uses AI technology to play with reality as the main character shapeshifts throughout.

Below are the other films released by TCL; they include a mountaineering documentary, a dystopian sci-fi about a girl who gets to see the sun for the first time, and a superhero film about a green rock.

These short movies are technically impressive; this time last year filmmakers simply couldn’t make AI-generated movies like this. However, the comments beneath them are mostly negative with users complaining about expressionless faces and emotionless voices.

404 Media notes that the films were made using Nuke, Runway, and ComfyUI, among other AI video generator apps.

“Our guiding principles are that we use humans to write, direct, produce, act, and perform, be it voice, motion capture, or style transfer. Composers, not AI, have scored our shorts,” Regina tells 404.

“There are over 50 animators, editors, effects artists, professional researchers, and scientists all at work at TCL Studios that had a hand in creating these films. These are stories about people, made by people, but powered by AI.”

TCL released a trailer for the world’s first fully AI-generated movie Next Stop Paris back in April which received a ton of backlash. Despite this, TCL is pressing on and believes the AI technology will improve to a point where it’s as good as a live-action movie.