A group of college seniors rent a smart house located on a secluded hillside for their spring break. Soon they realize that the house is controlled by a murderous artificial intelligence. A film by Steven C. Miller.

The film opens with a prologue, a horrific scene where a couple is murdered inside a house. Then it reveals that the killer is the computer which controls the house. It leaves no room for suspicion or interpretation.

A group of college seniors rent a smart house located on a secluded hillside for their spring break. Apparently they have known each other since their freshman, but somehow growing apart. They even have the name for their group, “Nerd Herd”. None of them looks like a nerd except Hannah (Madison Pettis), a programmer working on her personal machine learning project.

They have to install an app on their phone in order to accept terms and conditions before entering the house. Like most of us, they all just scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Accept”. Hannah gets suspicious, she’s the only one who clicks “Decline”. We can suddenly guess who’s going to survive in the end.

The house is controlled by Margaux, an advanced artificial intelligence designed to collect information of its guest to create personalized service for each individual. The house itself is also a gigantic 3D printer, it can print literally anything. Margaux impresses everyone with her cutting-edge technology and vast knowledge about everything from snake-arm robots appearing from the table top to Michelin rated food recipes.

That night, a snake-arm robot tries to drown Lexi (Venessa Morgan), but it fails. Margaux tells them that the robot is malfunction. Later that night they gather around in the living room like nothing bad ever happened. Until Margaux attempts to kill again.

The film misses the potential to be a good sci-fi horror flick and it becomes just another slasher film with sci-fi element added. There are many unnecessary dialogues, and some of them are too cringy including commentary about social media that doesn’t lead to anywhere. Computer-generated imagery looks fake in several scenes, especially snake-arm robot due to its limited budget.

The most frustrating moment is when Hannah inserts her USB drive and installs malware on the system. It’s like the scene from INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) where they upload the virus into alien mothership’s computer. How does it even work? Is it supposed to be comical or satirical? Not to mention why super advanced AI leaves its mainframe computer unguarded.

I like the overall concept of murderous AI, although it’s not entirely new. I secretly hope director/writers could craft new experience/perspective from this familiar “AI goes wrong” scenario like UPGRADE or EX_MACHINA did.

My favorite scene is the plot-twist at the very end which is open for interpretation. I know it’s a limitation of things created by the house must be powered inside its perimeter. But it would be interesting if he was a clone sent by the house to lure other victims.

MARGAUX is available for rent/purchase digitally in United States on September 9, 2022.