Margaux

It's good looking (for the most part, the CGI is trash) and well acted and I am ecstatic to see two Black female leads in a sci-fi horror. I'm sure, despite the actual problems this movie has, this qualifies it as "wOkE" and may immediately lead to bad reviews from certain people. But yeah, the actual issue is nothing....and I mean nothing....about this movie makes sense. First of all, it isn't a smarthouse. Ihas what can only be described as superpowers? How? Never explained. What's the white goo everywhere? Never explained. Why aren't the authorities at least 'concerned' about a house no one ever returns from? Never explained. Who built the house? Never explained. The house's motive? Explained but nonsensical. This was bad and I'm only giving three stars for the positive reasons I stated.

A group of friends take a holiday in a smart house, a house that is run by AI system Margeaux, a technology with murderous designs.

This film sucks, let's be honest it's flawed from top to bottom, but on a Saturday night added a few wines, it served as an entertaining kill fest. Cheesy and corny, it's not going to win any awards, but ninety minutes of humour and kills, it's worth a look.

I'll give credit for some of the kill scenes, very imaginative, a little Final Destination at times, some of the CGI however was dodgy to say the least.

Doctor Who The Flesh anyone?

It's a very bizarre mix, you imagine if this had been touted about fifteen years ago it would have been a slasher movie, one of them would have been the killer in plain sight, now of course in this day of AI obsession, it followed the recent trend for AI systems gone bad, the trouble is it's been done many times before, but better.

You can pick holes in the script all day long, you'll wonder why so many people have gone missing from that house, and no alarms have been raised.

Of all of the characters, I think Clay was perhaps the best of them, at least he was quite funny, Lexi was nauseating, Hannah was the most cliché ridden and obvious of the lot, it's a shame they were all so predictable.

6/10.

This is a very comfortable movie for those who enjoyed the commercial resurgence of horror in the 90s and early noughties.

The opening scenes are very reminiscent of Kevin Williamson's I Know What You Did Last Summer and Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods, with a definitive nod to the original Scream at the very beginning.

Pretty people of various stereotypes gather before Spring Break to hit a surprise location. It's all pretty cookie cutter but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.

The thrills are real and deaths are unique, given the antagonist is a house (no spoiler here; that's in the preview).

There are some forgivable timing issues but the BIG lost opportunity here was to expand on what was found in the mainframe. I sincerely felt that that was the right time to delve into the origin story of Margaux and build to a more worthy conclusion.

All in all though, a worthwhile effort for what it was meant to be. Very decent 6/10

#31DaysOfHalloween2022.

A litany of putrefied cinematic sins, sloppily contained in a thin polymer skin:

• Inane story
• Cardboard acting
• Self indulgent slo-mo interstitial sequence
• Infuriating dialogue
• Terrible effects
• Anachronistic technology with no explanation
• Strange scoring choices
• Deranged casting/geriatric 20-somethings
• Technobabble
• Non-existent cast chemistry
• Molecule-thin disposable stereotyped characters
• Redundant plot devices
• Inconsistent character behaviours
• Painfully unrewarding predictability
• Trying sooo hard for that 'R', not deserving it

Lawnmower man eat your heart out (this filmgives instructions).

As I had the opportunity to watch the 2022 horror / thriller "Margaux", of course I opted to do so. Sure, I had not even heard about this movie from writers Chris Beyrooty, Chris Sivertson and Nick Waters prior to watching it. But I found the synopsis to be alluring.

And now having watched it, I have to say that this movie was definitely unique. Yeah, there were parts of the storyline and script that had appeal, and the movie was watchable enough for what it turned out to be. But if you step back and look at the things that goes on throughout the movie objectively, then it just makes zero sense and the whole concept is actually not a great thing. But hey, the movie made for a semi-adequate viewing experience, so there was that.

So many things that happened throughout the movie were ludicrous, and why would someone create a house with the ability to kill people, or even have a ceiling that can slide all the way down to the floor? And so many other things just didn't make any logical sense if you think about it.

The acting in the movie was fairly good, taking into consideration the limitations imposed by the script. It was a relatively small cast ensemble, so the actors and actresses had to perform all the more convincingly to carry the movie. And they did that well enough. I was only familiar with actors Richard Harmon and Lochlyn Munro.

Visually then "Margaux" was enjoyable enough. The special effects in the movie were good and helped to distract from the ludicrous concept holes of the storyline.

"Margaux" is the type of movie that you watch once, then shelf it and never return to it a second time.

My rating of director Steven C. Miller's 2022 movie "Margaux" lands on a bland five out of ten stars.