Subservience (2024)

AKA M3GAN FOX. AKA FAITAL ATTRACTION. Those would have been my suggestions anyway.

You know how it is. When your wife ends up spending some time in hospital, with no guarantees of necessarily surviving the whole ordeal, then it can become difficult to balance your work and home life, especially when you have two small children. So you may end up investing in an advanced household "server bot" in the guise of Megan Fox. 

That's the plot of Subservience, basically, but with the added wrinkle of M3GAN FOX then becoming dangerously obsessed with her new owner, Nick (Michele Morrone). That gives Nick some problems, of course, but also upsets his wife, Maggie (Madeline Zima), and puts his children (Isla and Max) in potential danger.

Director S. K. Dale made his feature debut with Till Death, also starring Megan Fox, in a film that generally received some good reviews for both concept and star. That was more fun than this, thanks mainly to the efficiency of a great premise worked into a fun and tense script. The writers of this film, Will Honley and April Maguire, know what they're aiming for, although they sadly never push things too far into the world of the wonderfullly bonkers, but are hampered by a couple of big problems.

The first big problem stems from their own writing. There's a sub-plot here that comments on the lives being changed, and potentially ruined, by the progress of technology. Nick has a friend/ex-colleague, Monty (Andrew Whipp), who finds himself, along with many others, no longer needed at his place of employment. It's not necessarily bad to explore that tension, but it doesn't work in this movie. What works are the moments that are enjoyably trashy and focusing on the increasing tension of the main situation.

The other big problem is Morrone, who just isn't a strong lead. I'm not saying that it's the easiest job in the world to convey conflicted emotions and confusion while being attracted to a Megan Fox android, but Morrone needed to do much better here. His weak performance is especially disappointing compared to the good work from Fox and Zima, the former exuding an air of constant menace while not always overtly doing anything wrong and the latter being a vulnerable woman hoping to get her strength and health back before she loses her place in the family unit. Whipp is okay, I guess, but he just has to be angry and vengeful, and young Matilda Firth is sweet enough as Isla (with her even younger brother, played by Jude Greenstein, easily inhabiting his baby role by simply being a a baby).

I wanted this to be better, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't have fun with it. Everyone involved tries to hit the brief, as it were, and there are times when it does exactly what you want it to do. Unfortunately, there are too many times when it seems to think it needs more substance. Get a better lead actor in here, strip away the sub-plot commentary on the global situation, and you have a fine piece of sexy sci-fi silliness. As it is, Fox has the star power and the acting ability to still make this worth your time, but that really depends on whether or not you like Fox in the first place.

6/10

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Netflix And Chill: Till Death (2021)

Say what you like about Megan Fox, and oh so many already have, she has often mixed interesting projects into her filmography alongside the movie roles that have her as little more than “eye candy”. It may have taken far too long for people to fully appreciate Jennifer’s Body, but there’s a chance that something like Till Death can find an audience now, especially if people are interested in a fairly straightforward thriller that is happy to throw subtlety to the wind as it depicts a woman fighting to survive an unhappy marital situation.

Fox plays Emma, who is unhappily married to Mark (Eoin Macken). Mark used to be a lawyer who helped put bad guys away, like the man (Bobby Ray, played by Callan Mulvey) who attacked Emma many years ago, but now he makes a better living by keeping bad guys out of prison. Mark may also be aware that Emma is so unhappy in their marriage that she has recently started an affair with Tom (Aml Ameen). Perhaps that is the reason for him taking them out to an isolated lake house, enjoying one lovely night together, and then blowing his brains out in the morning. With Emma handcuffed to him. It soon becomes clear that Mark has made sure Emma cannot leave, and has made sure that she cannot remove the cuffs easily. He has also invited some dangerous people to come to the lake house, promising them a very hefty reward.

The feature debut of director S. K. Dale, Till Death is a lean, enjoyable, thriller that really starts to become more entertaining once the central dilemma is fully established. Very early scenes are a bit strange and awkward, with both leads showing just how uncomfortable they are around one another in their problem-riddled marriage, but the suicide moment feels like the moment when the film is moved into another gear. Writer Jason Carvey, although without a wealth of experience in his filmography, generally keeps things tense enough to distract viewers from picking at the more obvious plot holes.

Fox is great in her role, carrying a number of scenes on her own (with a corpse attached to her). As the death and trauma actually bring her character to life, she becomes more and more committed to surviving, something that would have seemed impossible to the woman in the opening scenes. It's this performance, in line with the main theme of the movie, that makes the film work so well. Mulvey is a dangerous and menacing presence, as he so often is, and Jack Roth is good as your standard "bad man who will do bad things, but doesn't want to go as far as killing someone". Macken is easy to dislike, while Ameen is easy to like, and that is your main cast sorted.

Although the premise may be looking at someone fighting to break away from a bad marriage/husband, literally, there's also an interesting aspect to Till Death that shows male entitlement, and how so many men think they are doing well by women as long as they're not acting on par with the worst men around. There's really only one potential good guy here, and even he makes the mistake of not listening to a woman who knows more about the impending danger than he does. Which clarifies that, while others may help on occasion, the only one who can really help Emma have a proper life . . . is Emma.

Get through those difficult early scenes and you end up with a solid thriller that is an easy one to recommend.

7/10

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