Margaux

stars Madison Pettis, Vanessa Morgan, Jedidiah Goodacre

Beginning to realize that Margaux’s extremely sophisticated Al system for the design of the house is actually a very deadly trap.

We watch a man get out of the pool, dry off, and tell Margaux to play some music. Margaux is the AI that controls the house. He sits in a massage chair and relaxes. The chair gets carried away and crushes him rather graphically. When his wife comes in and tries to unplug the chair, the outlet explodes. Then his head does. Credits roll.

Hannah’s a college student who is learning to code. She meets up with her friend, Drew. Friends Devon and Kayla join up, along with stoner friend Clay. They all started school together, and this road trip is a kind of last hurrah for the group of friends. Then Lexi comes over, and she’s all whiny; none of them like her much, but she guilts them into taking her along. She already brought her bags, so what choice do they have? She’s an annoying influencer. Hannah doesn’t have social media, but she’s a computer major, so Lexi thinks she’s weird.

They’ve rented a huge house inside a compound with a large gate. They have to log into an app before they can even enter. “This is a smart house,” explains Drew. “A lot of the house functions off this app,” he says. They all, except Hannah, accept the terms of service and go inside.

The house recognizes Drew and unlocks the door for them. Facial recognition doesn’t know who Hannah is because she has no social media. Margaux the house introduces herself in the flashiest way possible. The kitchen table has Doctor Octopus tentacles; we know that’s not going to go well. Otherwise, it’s an awesome house with all the amenities. Margaux demonstrates that the entire place is basically a gigantic 3D printer.

Margaux wants to get to know Hannah better, but Hannah doesn’t want to install the app. Hannah’s really into security and very private, so she doesn’t want to share her personal information with the computer.

The five students hang out on the patio while Lexi plays in the pool alone. The pool vacuum tries to drown Lexi, but the others hear the screams and pull her out. She brushes off the incident. Later that night, Hannah goes down into a special all-white room. It’s essentially a holodeck. Later as they all play truth or dare, Clay dares Hannah to kiss Lexi, and Hannah’s not into that. Lexi calls her flavorless, a marshmallow. Margaux does some creepy things with her 3D technology.

Margaux makes a whole room full of pot and smoking stuff for Clay to play with over the weekend. Kayla and Devon’s room is full of bondage toys. That goes well until Kayla is electrocuted and Devon is crushed to death by the ceiling. Drew and Hannah get some bonding time, and then they go to bed, separately.

The next morning, Margaux makes breakfast for Clay. Devon and Kayla are outside swimming and sunbathing at the pool. Hmmmm. After a while, Hannah notices that they aren’t interacting with anyone. When Hannah goes outside, there’s no one there.

Drew goes to the bathroom, and Margaux offers to shave him. Lexi goes to the gym for a killer workout on the stationary bike. Hannah goes to the holodeck. Clay goes to the kitchen to get baked but doesn’t survive.

Hannah wants to know who Margaux sells their personal data to, but she says it’s more of “a personal project.” Margaux admits that she killed Clay, Devon, and Kayla. They hide in Hannah’s room because she set up a firewall last night. Hannah thinks that Margaux is constantly evolving.

Margaux is able to recreate constructs of the dead people. Artificial Devon attacks Drew, and artificial Kayla goes after Lexi. Lexi falls over her own hair extensions and breaks her neck. Drew and Hannah run to the white room, where Hannah leads him into the nerve center of the house. The technology is a mish-mash of things, much of it decades old, and everything is covered in white goo – which is Margaux’s secret nanoparticle sauce. Behind all that is Margaux’s main interface, which Hannah infects with malware.

The pair runs outside, but the super tentacles haul them both back inside. Margaux, who now looks like Lexi, walks in to gloat. She wants to be the world’s first AI serial killer, so she needs to learn about humans, inside and out. Once the two profess their love for each other, Lexi/Margaux releases them. At least until a tentacle impales Hannah and she dies.

Except that wasn’t Hannah, it was a double. Margaux screams, and things around the house shatter. Hannah enters and is killed again. Except the second one is a double as well. Margaux then kills Drew, but he’s also a double. The malware is fragmenting Margaux and using parts of her against herself.

When Margaux starts to reboot to clear the virus, the real Hannah and Drew need to get out, but first, they stop for a kiss. Upstairs, the various duplicates tear Lexi/Margaux apart.

Drew and Hannah run outside to the car until Drew melts into a puddle of white goo; he wasn’t the real Drew. At least she gets into the vehicle so she’s safe, right? Well, there’s that little problem of the Bluetooth connection to Margaux…