Debug (2014)

Six convict hackers on work release, along with their guard, are sent to debug the systems on a drifting starship. Left running unsupervised for years at a time, these sophisticated programs can get corrupted, even come to think they are 'real people'. Clearing them out is routine work and none of the seven humans expect this time to be anything out of the ordinary.

Of course if they were right there wouldn't be much of a movie.  So it's probably no surprise if I tell you that the security AI on this particular vessel is determined to do unto the humans before they can do unto it ...

Written and directed by David Hewlett, who is probably best known for his role as Rodney McKay on the Stargate TV shows, Debug is a smartly produced bit of low budget SF/horror.  The script isn't anything particularly deep or innovative - the debt to HAL's homicidal impulses in 2001 is openly acknowledged by Hewlett - but it moves along briskly and doesn't ask its characters to be too obviously stupid.  The sets and costumes are effective and the special effects work, while obviously modest and limited, do not look too terrible.  I tend to credit Hewlett's extensive experience of TV science fiction (and the contacts he made there) for how well-judged these elements are.

Hewlett's TV experience probably also helped with casting.  Everyone here is solid, and obviously a post-Game of Thrones Jason Momoa was a pretty good 'get' even back in 2014.  No doubt the years of Stargate: Atlantis that they did together didn't hurt.

If you're the target audience for a "haunted house in space" movie, you could certainly do a lot worse than Debug.