Menu
PERSONHOOD
Annie recoils as Facts reaches for her, the artificial child and beautiful room partly dissolving to expose rot and spiders.

A science-fiction horror short story

PERSONHOOD

Aaron Guzikowski

A grieving mother.
An artificial child.
A very real nightmare.

From the writer of Prisoners
and creator of Raised by Wolves.

Annie urgently disconnects the augmentation receiver as beautiful clothes dissolve to reveal web-covered walls.

The world

You can hide
almost anything.

The view outside your window. The clothes you wear. The face you show your husband.

With AUG Pro, augmented reality makes life look exactly as you want it to. Even a basement can become a garden filled with impossible fruit.

But hiding what you fear doesn’t make it disappear.

Facts reaches towards a dressing mirror that reflects the linen shelves but not the artificial girl.

The family

Her name
is Facts.

After her daughter’s death, Annie retreats into her augmented garden. Her husband, William, believes a new addition to the family might help.

Facts looks like a nine-year-old girl. She gets hungry. She gets frightened. She can die. She’s an AI with no physical body.

And in the eyes of the law, she is a person.

What happens when Annie becomes convinced they’ve welcomed a monster into their home?

Annie sits at a table while Facts watches from a doorway in their storybook home.

From page to screen

For film
and television

In a near future where augmented reality can hide anything unpleasant, a grieving mother agrees to replace her dead daughter with a bodiless AI child legally recognized as a person—then becomes convinced the new member of her family is a monster she may have no legal right to destroy.

A municipal vehicle burns webs from an infested street as beautiful augmented facades dissolve into neglected buildings.

For film and television

  • Timely AI horror

    A contemporary fear made intimate: an artificial child with legal personhood.

  • Killer ethical hook

    A mother believes her replacement child is dangerous but may have no legal right to destroy it.

  • Intimate, cast-driven sci-fi

    A grieving family and a bodiless AI child keep the drama emotionally grounded while the augmented world supplies cinematic scope.

  • From Aaron Guzikowski

    From the writer-creator behind Prisoners and Raised by Wolves.

Annie sits alone in her augmented garden, watching the sun set over the fruit trees.

The short story

Read the book.

Personhood by Aaron Guzikowski.

Aaron Guzikowski

Aaron Guzikowski wrote Prisoners, directed by Denis Villeneuve, and created Raised by Wolves, executive produced by Ridley Scott.

His other credits include The Red Road, Papillon and Contraband.

Read the book