According to David Lynch, “if you’re playing (a) movie on a telephone, you will never in a trillion years experience the film…It’s such a sadness that you think you’ve seen a film on your fucking telephone. Get real!” The iPhone screen, however, is how quite a few people experience movies nowadays, and can, I’d argue, make for a memorable viewing venue. For proof, check out the digitally lensed AUTONOMOUS, an entry in the “Micro Horrors” series made for the iPhone app Screamify.
The zombie themed GAME NIGHT, released in March 2026, was an earlier example of Micro Horror, consisting of 26 1-2 minute episodes, each of which immediately segued into the next upon its conclusion. The similarly formatted 16-part AUTONOMOUS, which followed in June, was a stronger and more topical program, with a subject—an evil self-driving cab—that was taken directly from reality, with no special effects required.
Presented in real time, AUTONOMOUS features the harried Amy (Erin Aine) and her boyfriend Derek (Domenic Jungling), who’ve just left a restaurant. Heading back to their apartment in a driverless cab, which announces its every action in a creepy robotic voice, Derek and Amy spend much of the early part of the ride bickering. Their arguments, appropriately enough, center mostly on AI, to which Derek has lost his copyrighting job (“Four years of school, ten years of experience, and I’m competing with a fucking algorithm”).
After 12 minutes of this, Amy realizes they’re going the wrong way, with the big city scenery growing increasingly rustic. Derek assures her it’s “just a system glitch,” but then the car halts itself due to an “obstacle” in the middle of the road—actually an indistinct hooded individual (Thomas Mulnix) with sharp claws it scrapes against the driver’s side window. The person moves away, but before long another such individual is spotted, and things this time around go much differently, especially when the car decides to unlock its doors…
Take it from one who’s tried it: viewing this program on a big screen is a mistake. Yet, taken for what it is—a modestly scaled, multi-part short film intended for iPhone viewing—it’s pretty strong, with a good sense of pacing and rhythm, some cleverly conceived scares (the car’s climactic announcement that the doors are unlocking was an especially memorable moment) and acting that may not be great, but does attain a strong pitch of sustained hysteria. Most impressive (and upsetting) of all is the timeliness of the concept. In light of the real-life mishaps that have plagued self-driving automobiles, I predict it won’t be long before AUTONOMOUS stops playing like a horror movie and more like a documentary.
Vital Statistics
AUTONOMOUS
Big Squid Productions, Inc.
Director/Cinematography/Editing: Kyle Valle
Producer: Kyle Valle, Erin Aine
Screenplay: Sean Overbeeke
Editing: Kyle Valle
Cast: Erin Aine, Domenic Jungling, Thomas Mulnix, Elijah Passmore, Sydney Jonas, Jeremaih Baker