SUBSERVIENCE

(director: S.K. Dale; screenwriters: Will Honley, April Maguire; cinematographer: Daniel Lindholm; editor: Sean Lahiff; music: Jed Palmer; cast: Megan Fox (Alice), Michele Morrone (Nick), Madeline Zima (Maggie), Matilda Firth (Isla); Runtime: 103; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Jon Berg, Jeffrey Greenstein, Yarly Lerner, Tanner Mobley, Jonathan Yunger, Les Weldon, Greg Silverman, Robert Van Norden; XYZ Films; 2024)

“It’s fine until it eventually turns into a predictable 1970s slasher film.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

S.K. Dale (“Till Death”/”Tommy”) directs this low-budget sci-fi horror film on an AI character gone awry that’s co-written by Will Honley and April Maguire. It’s fine until it eventually turns into a predictable 1970s slasher film and concludes on a downbeat note.

Alice (Megan Fox) is a female AI android. She’s been created for families in need of help with their housework.

Alice is bought by Nick (Michele Morrone), who is having a tough time taking care of the house and his young daughter Isla (Matilda Firth) after his wife Maggie (Madeline Zima) has trouble recovering from surgery for a heart transplant. Unfortunately Alice takes to her task too seriously and goes rogue, whereby she is willing to kill her owner if he doesn’t give her the love she thinks she deserves after tempting him to have sex with her.

Though the pic has its entertaining moments, it chooses to follow a predictable path of tawdry horror pic violence instead of exploring more stimulating AI manifestations of functioning within a nuclear family.

Megan Fox, as a machine trying to come to terms with her human emotions, seems to have warmed to her role and delivers a fun performance, even if the messy film eventually crashes when its unable to blend together its sci-fi plot with an erotic thriller.

REVIEWED ON 12/17/2024  GRADE: C+
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