Margaux Review (2022): AI Horror Flick Does Nothing to Elicit Thrills or Chills

Margaux Review (2022): Starring Madison Pettis, Vanessa Morgan, Jedidiah Goodacre, Phoebe Miu, Jordan Buhat, Richard Harmon, and Susan Bennett (voice for Margaux), this horror-thriller is directed by Steven C. Miller and written by Chris Beyrooty, Chris Sivertson and Nick Waters. The movie has a runtime of 104 minutes.

Margaux Plot

A group of college students make their way to a smart home to party and relax for spring break. However, unbeknownst to them, Margaux, the AI, isn’t like other AI technologies – it has sinister plans that might just result in all of them having to outsmart their technological nemesis to save their lives.

– Margaux Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –

Margaux Review

The movie tells us exactly what we are in for in the first 5 minutes of its runtime – humans vs. AI at its most basic. The character might remind everyone of Cabin in the Woods, and if this horror-thriller existed back then, then I am almost positive that the 2011 horror-comedy film would’ve been making fun of this cliched watch.

I think it is necessary for movies that talk about futuristic stuff that the CGI is good or at least believable. But Margaux starts off with such bad CGI that every moment is unbelievably stupid, thanks to it. Thankfully it starts off with the kill count as soon as it can, and the AI can get its robotic hands on human flesh. The problem with this movie is that it doesn’t do literally anything new. From the cliched characters to the repetitive plot that oftentimes doesn’t make sense, the film is a scene-for-scene copy of other movies of the genre but this time, the ghosts are replaced by a psychotical technological innovation.

Sure, the message is clear and quite useful – modern society’s overuse of technology might just spell our doom in the near future, but we have seen this message many times before, and the movie doesn’t do anything new in any way to elicit more of a threat at any point. It’s an expected storyline that will not thrill you much because you know exactly what’s going to happen in the next scene. Margaux also constantly makes you wonder why the AI needs to go to these lengths to kill people – it can just poison everyone’s food and be done with it.

But then again, the theatrics are probably the only thing that works for the movie – the bloodier and gorier the movie, the more fun you have with it. And sure, it’s fun to watch the bloody deaths and all that, but I guess mindless murder stops being fun after the 100th movie that tries to bank on our shock and psychotic interest in watching people die violently. I guess it scratches a particular itch in all of us, but when there is nothing more to the story than gory kills, it’s just another movie in a long list of stupid movies.

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Even the characters’ motivations and decision-making skills are really poor, and the fact that they are this one-dimensional makes it hard to care for them. Plus, in spite of the bloody kills, the kills aren’t even that ingenious or anything and are just run-of-the-mill. In one scene, the “bimbo” of the group dies in the stupidest way possible in an effort to probably say that “oh she’s so dumb!” but it’s neither funny nor smart and just makes it very lazy. The cliched characters are boring and don’t feel like real people and only fit the boxes that movies such as these are expected to fit.

So why does AI Margaux try to murder everyone? Honestly, it’s just the dumbest reasoning you can imagine that’s just so nonsensical that it’s funny. The end 15 minutes are the most excruciating in this already-painful stupidity that is neither complex nor entertaining and makes things happen just because. The talented cast of actors, unfortunately, cannot save this mess of a movie that is just plain mind-numbingly dumb.

Margaux Review: Final Thoughts

Margaux is a very uninspired and cliched movie that you have seen several times before, just that it’s with AI this time because that’s what’s working out right now. It does nothing new, and neither do its characters feel like real people. However, if you are in the mood for something to watch that won’t use your brain all that much, then you can give this a go for Halloween this year. Better yet, fire up Cabin in the Woods once again!

Margaux is streaming on Netflix.

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