Margaux (2022)

Directed by Steven C. Miller [Other horror films: Automaton Transfusion (2006), Scream of the Banshee (2011), Under the Bed (2012), Silent Night (2012)]

The trailer for Margaux seemed interesting to me, and despite the fact that the film had some lukewarm-to-negative reaction, I thought I’d check it out. As it is, while Margaux’s not a terrible movie, I don’t really know if there’s much to it.

Certainly the idea of being trapped in a smart house with murderous intent has potential. The problem is, this isn’t just a typical smart house (and while I say ‘typical,’ I’m speaking only from what I’ve gleaned from movies, as I myself have never been in a smart house, nor do I know if they’re even actually real to a large extent), it’s also a 3D printer with nanotech liquid, meaning that it can create pretty much anything from scratch. At one point, it even creates some clones.

For perhaps an hour and ten minutes, we’re given a somewhat uninspired but perfectly serviceable film, and then in the final thirty minutes, things, in my view, go off the rails. It’s true that I didn’t care for the tentacles that the smart house uses to shave people, or mix drinks with, but it gets worse, as clones are created to fight against the smart house, and more clones appear, and there’s even a twist (which anyone who’s seen Halloween III: Season of the Witch could have expected) dealing with a clone. It just started to feel totes ridiculous, brahs.

I don’t lay any of the fault onto the performances. As the lead, Madison Pettis was perfectly solid, and a decently likable character. Likable also was Jedidiah Goodacre (Marry F*** Kill, The Recall), who had a Remember-the-Titans Sunshine look going for him. We never got a great hang on Phoebe Miu or Jordan Buhat, and Vanessa Morgan’s social influencer personality was a bit much, but it comes with the new-age territory. Stoner stereotype Richard Harmon (Grave Encounters 2, I Still See You, The Return, The Clinic) was pretty fun, at least.

Performances aside, though, I just don’t know how memorable Margaux is. None of the kills were that great – you had someone get suffocated, another electrocuted, someone drank down acid. True, a man’s head was squeezed until it popped in the opening scene, but past that, there’s not much here to write home about. We also never really learned about how Margaux’s programming got altered. Maybe AI can just uproot themselves from programming – perhaps that’s the point – but I was hoping for something more.

Like I said, Margaux isn’t an awful film. However, I can definitely understand many of the lukewarm things I’ve heard about it, and though the production value is no doubt high, and the movie looks beautiful much of the time, I can’t say it’s anywhere near a great film.

6/10