Final Rating: 2/5
A recently divorced man has an entertainment AI system installed in his home in Infinitely Dense.
Director Ace Thor’s feature debut stars Glen Steele as Tom. Retired and alone, Tom spends his days drinking and alternatingly watching television and porn. On a whim, Tom contracts a company called Instantly Real to wire his house for fully personalized, augmented reality entertainment. With the help of a microchip implanted in his neck, Tom is given the ability to ask for anything and have it become instantly real. He’ll be the only one to see or hear whatever he decides to conjure, but he lives alone anyway.
Tom’s new AI promises infinite possibilities for endless entertainment, but the actual output is limited by his imagination. A technician early on asks if he wants to keep his old TV, since the new system can “play anything. Even things that don’t exist yet.” But when Tom tries inserting himself into fully customized TV shows after the system’s installation, he can only stand the result for a minute or two before turning it off out of disgust.
Instead, Tom gets the most out of using his system to imagine young women who are interested in him, though he’s also quick to shut them down if they try to ask about his life or hobbies. He’ll still have sex with them, though.
Director Thor’s commentary on generative AI is apt, if not exactly novel. The promise of a system that can create anything you can imagine comes with the immediate downside that often, the most interesting and exciting things we can experience are things we couldn’t have imagined.
Even then, Tom having his every whim indulged is enticing enough that he keeps at it, no different from any other addicting substance. Tom’s system begins to take on a life of its own fairly quickly, but Tom’s age and alcoholism keep him and the audience second-guessing himself long enough that Infinitely Dense doesn’t feel like a story about a malicious AI until almost the very end.
Things eventually spiral out of control. The final minutes of the movie have Tom stumbling through a house unrecognizable from the one he started in, shifting between traumatic childhood memories and reality, while AI apparitions berate and threaten him. And yet, the movie makes its point far more strongly before its horror turn. Infinitely Dense isn’t a movie about a single malicious AI, but rather a vampirism inherent to all AI.
From the moment Tom has his new system installed, he sinks further and further into loneliness brought on by his own worst impulses. His earliest encounters with visitors to his house are awkward and stilted; later, they’re marked by severe paranoia. His attempts to connect with his daughter and ex-wife, already initially weak, grow fewer, further between, and less coherent with time. His occasional walks on the beach and already limited attempts at internet socializing fall away, replaced by a revolving door of virtual girlfriends Tom can conjure and delete on a whim.
It’s a fine parable, but one whose point is made too quickly. The point that he’s unhappy making his own thoughts manifest is clear right away. More interesting details of his choices get lost as Thor keeps returning to the same well. At almost two hours, Infinitely Dense spends a good amount of time beating around the bush.
Infinitely Dense was made with a low budget, which shows, though usually not in a bad way. Shots are capably composed, and Thor gets a lot of mileage out of basic effects and sleight of hand. Tom will tell his system to make something appear somewhere just off-screen before cutting to that thing, now on-screen.
Infinitely Dense is a bit long and a bit unpolished. However, while it could use another pass from the editing team, as a showcase for Thor’s ability as a storyteller, it’s promising.
Infinitely Dense was seen during the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
