You might have read a few headlines saying “Hell Grind,” the 95-minute AI-generated demon movie, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, as The Wall Street Journal and Screen reported this week. However, that’s far from the truth.
“Hell Grind,” which I’d only heard about today, was not screened as part of the official Cannes selection. Rather, the film was shown at an industry event organized by third parties in Cannes — the city, not the festival itself. It eventually snuck its way into the Cannes market for buyers.
The plot of this ghastly-looking film has to do with “four street thieves on the road to hell, literally.” It sounds, and looks, like trash, and according to the WSJ, “every character, setting and prop in the 95-minute movie was generated by AI.”
The film was created using Higgfield AI, who have billed their science-fiction experiment as “the world’s first ever AI feature film.” They also seem perfectly willing to blur the lines for audiences and investors alike by touting a Cannes premiere without clarifying that it is not actually part of the festival.
“We just premiered in Cannes our first 95-minute feature film made entirely on Higgsfield,” the company’s founder wrote on social media.
A team of 15 “professional directors, DPs, and editors” reportedly made the film in 14 days for under $500,000. They claim the movie would have cost $50M without AI. Here’s more from Higgsfield:
This is the first AI film to demonstrate that AI can now sustain character consistency, world coherence, and narrative arc across a complete feature.
There is, in fact, a trailer — released five days ago — which looks atrocious. The first 20 minutes are also available to screen on YouTube. It looks more like a tech demo than an actual movie. Unnatural character designs, jittery frame rates, awkward action sequences, and visuals that resemble an extended video game. That’s what you get here.
Why spend $500K on a flimsy story filled with explosions and anarchy? I have yet to hear of a filmmaker willing to use AI to make a character-driven drama — I’m sure they exist, but they don’t get reported on as much.