I quite liked Margaux, which doesn’t have a Wikipedia page. I was shocked to see more controversy in the reviews. I suppose I have to admit, within about 30 minutes when the movie establishes itself as, essentially, a secret haunted house/horror house movie, I was tickled pink and perhaps overly positively disposed to the whole thing.
I took another look. I still really liked Margaux as a movie! First, I enjoy the updated twist on the haunted house trope. Here we have a malicious smart home rented, presumably, through AirBnb. We’ve got essentially a capsule episode but for a movie. There’s a limited cast of 6 offering, as typical, one happily-essentially-married core couple, one stoner, and a romantic triangle with the remaining 3. 5 of the group have been friends since freshman year, while one is an interloper, annoyingly tagging on to their spring break trip at the last minute. Our main character, Hannah, is a super brainy hacker/coder girl played by Madison Pettis. I enjoy the fact that 5/6 of the main characters are, ostensibly, brains, as demonstrated by their shared scholarship kid background.
The house has a personality, too. Margaux has defined goals and plans, and she even brings us in on them, which is satisfying from a plot perspective. Overall, I gotta say I feel like this is a pretty strong script and this is a movie that started as a script — I thought the writing was good. (Script writers: Chris Beyrooty, Chris Sivertson, Nick Waters.) There’s a pleasantly diverse cast. I think this movie even passes the Bechdel test — IF we count Margaux as human enough to be considered a female character! 🙂 There’s a fair bit of humor here, if you have a taste for the wry and the slightly meta. I definitely do!
There are some misses, I’m sure. If Margaux is so powerful, why isn’t she omnipotent — as demonstrated by multiple failed attempts to kill the stoner character Clay (played by Richard Harmon)? When did the ability to 3D print become the ability to magic a stash of smokeable weed, let alone very human-like clones, out of nowhere? Objections to this movie can be made. However, if you are looking for something that is not too scary, going to keep you entertained, and leave you with a fun twist in terms of “who the evil one is” — I think Margaux will satisfy that itch!
hooked on horror 