Stand aside, M3GAN—and make room, M3GAN‘s upcoming spin-off sister Soulm8te. Megan Fox’s Subservience arrives this week, and io9 has an exclusive clip showing her android character as she’s starting to break bad, and looking eerily flawless while doing so.
Directed by S.K. Dale and written by Will Honley and April Maguire, Subservience also deserves special props for whoever decided to cast Fox; though she previously leaned into similar glamorous-yet-deadly vibes in Jennifer’s Body, there’s something even darker going on here, and the way she’s styled with exaggerated femininity feels like the exact right choice. Woe be it unto anyone who tries to get in her way, like the unfortunate character we see in the scene above.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Megan Fox stars as Alice, a lifelike artificially intelligent android, who has the ability to take care of any family and home. Looking for help with the housework, a struggling father (Michele Morrone) purchases Alice after his wife becomes sick. Alice suddenly becomes self-aware and wants everything her new family has to offer, starting with the affection of her owner—and she’ll kill to get it.”
How Alice becomes self-aware isn’t revealed in the synopsis—for the love of old monster movies, I hope it’s a wayward lightning strike—or in the trailer below, but the ailing wife is played by Madeline Zima, for all the Heroes and Doom Patrol fans out there.
The trailer hints that Alice’s pivot into dangerous self-interest might not start and end in her new family’s household—there’s definitely some cautionary messaging about making robots too life-like, then carelessly integrating them into the world—but this clearly isn’t something on the scope of Westworld. Instead, Subservience looks like a domestic thriller that sprouts within a sci-fi premise.
Soulm8te, Blumhouse’s upcoming M3GAN spin-off, has a similar-sounding story involving a man who acquires a companion robot after his wife dies and an unnatural attachment forms. But it’s not a new idea; in recent years we’ve also seen Ex Machina, Her, and other works explore the frequently confusing intersection of human emotion and artificial intelligence. It doesn’t always have to be scary (see: the delightful and under-appreciated Brian and Charles), but Subservience is most definitely aiming for erotic robot terror vibes. With Fox playing the main character, it feels like the campy heights of M3GAN are reasonably within reach.
