Fantastic Fest Review: ‘Appofeniacs’ Brings Us to the Edge of Dystopian

Appofeniacs is a frenetic ‘connect-the-dots’ fever dream of a movie grounded only by the accuracy of its absurdity. Which is to say, it’s so absurd that it has to be real, because reality has become so absurd. But let me backtrack as we delve into one of my favorite movies to emerge from the genre film festival Fantastic Fest. Off the bat, Appofeniacs behaves like a twisted love letter to Pulp Fiction, centering on generative AI instead of a mysterious suitcase. Escalation is the name of the game, and it does not disappoint. You never know how far a moment will go with this film. Is it edgy? Yes. Very. But it’s just as smart as it is sharp. Told in four, over-the-top vignettes that are woven together in the best possible way, Appofeniacs opens the door for a conversation in film that folks need to be having in real life.

A masked gunman is commonplace in movies. But you’ll NEVER guess how we got here. Appofeniacs (2025)

Appofeniacs is an unassumingly clever machine of a movie. Even the title is a tongue-in-cheek play on words. ‘Apophenia’ is the psychological tendency to perceive meaningful patterns or connections between unrelated things. Finding an order in the chaos. Which is super apropos for anyone paying attention to the cause and effect of media and politics in the U.S. But to switch out the prefix for ‘app’ just tells you what this movie is. One of the most important things a movie with a message can do is know what it i…