Director Steven C. Miller Talks AI Horror Film Margaux

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For several years, filmmaker Steven C. Miller has been busy making action/thriller titles starring some of the biggest names in film. However, his newest film, Margaux, sees Miller return to another genre he is truly passionate about — horror. Written by Chris Beyrooty and Nick Waters, it stars Madison Pettis, Vanessa Morgan, Richard Harmon, Lochlyn Munro, Jedidiah Goodacre, Phoebe Miu, Jordan Buhat, Brittany Mitchell, and Louis Lay.


The film follows “a group of seniors celebrating their final college days at a smart house.” What starts as a fun time with friends goes deadly wrong as the house, named Margaux, “begins to take on a deadly presence of her own.” Soon the group realizes “Margaux’s plans to eliminate her tenants one way or another. Time begins to run out as the group desperately tries to survive and outsmart the smart home.”

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For Margaux’s September 9th release on Digital, we talked with Miller about the film’s FX, filming location, and the very special voice behind the maniacal house.


Location Is Everything

MovieWeb: Hi, Steven, so you are back doing horror with this new movie. What made you take on the project?

Steven C. Miller: I hadn’t done horror in a decade almost, and I wanted to do something that felt more intimate, a bit more personal, and a bit more of what I grew up watching. So, the script kind of hit that for me. It hit like an ‘80s horror flick mixed with new technology, which I’m a fan of. I hadn’t done horror in a while, so it felt like the right time to get back into it.

MovieWeb: Obviously, this gorgeous house is a character in itself. Where did you film, and how did you prep for so much bloodshed and slime?

Steven C. Miller: Oh my god, we searched for a long time. We’re in Vancouver and ended up in a place called Squamish, this gorgeous area right by the mountains. This house is just sort of nestled in there, and the owners were gracious enough to let us come in. I stressed very hard at the beginning that this is a beautiful home. We cannot destroy this house, even though the house is destroyed in the movie.

Production was really great and allowed me to build certain pieces. One of the main rooms in the house is totally fabricated, so we were able to do that. To prep the main house for a lot of the bloodshed was a really difficult task, and I got to give it to the production designer, Tyler Harron, who created great facades to go on the walls and floors that matched the house perfectly. It allowed us to break sh-t, so that to me was crucial because we did have a lot of goo and gore happening. To be able to do that and homeowners not be upset was important.

MovieWeb: Absolutely! And can you talk a bit about the familiar voice behind Margaux?

Steven C. Miller: It’s actually Siri! We went into it thinking we were going to get a more horror-esque name for it, but I had done a lot of things in the edit with it being Siri, and ultimately that came down to why we decided to go with the voice. It was not a difficult decision at all once we really got in there. She [Susan Bennett] gave such a great performance, and it was a lot of fun to hear her become Margaux.

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It was kind of eerie at the same time to hear the voice of Siri saying some of these outlandish things. You’re just like, I don’t think she’s supposed to say any of this. But it was a lot of fun.

MovieWeb: If you’re making an AI gone wrong flick, having Siri on board is such a great touch.

Steven C. Miller: It’s so odd, but you watch it thinking, well, this actually resonates because that’s what people are used to hearing.

Margaux’s Mix of Practical FX and CG

MovieWeb: Going back to the topic of FX, it looked like a good mix of practical and CG. Was that always the plan?

Steven C. Miller: I went in going, this is a 100% practical FX movie. This is what I want to do ultimately. You get in there and realize the puppets you made aren’t working and, especially on this budget, which is a pretty low-budget film, it was a challenge to get a lot of these practical things to work. So, ultimately, we had to rely on some CG stuff, but I think a lot of it mixes really well. There are some things in there that I obviously wish could be a lot better, but, again, on a movie like this, you’re just trying to get the audience in, get them to have fun.

MovieWeb: As you know, horror fans love practical, but sometimes it just makes sense to go CG.

Steven C. Miller: Almost all the blood, gore, and goo are all practical. That’s just me spraying the actors off-camera as much as possible to harass them. But it was a lot of fun to do both. All of the effects work is just one of those things I hold really dear to my heart because I’m an ‘80s kid. I love ‘80s horror, so as much as I can put it on-screen for the audience to physically touch and smell almost is something that was important for me.

Todd Masters is a great effects guy. He’s done some amazing work, and he was really sort of the mastermind of saying, hey, look, Steven, this is not gonna work. What you want to do is bonkers, but we can get partially there, and then we’ll build on top of that, which is really, ultimately, what we did. So kudos to him for walking me through some of this stuff to make it look great.

MovieWeb: Todd Masters definitely lives up to his name.

Steven C. Miller: He really does, absolutely.

MovieWeb: I can’t mention the FX without also mentioning the opening. You got your Drew Barrymore [Scream] moment, and with a familiar face!

Steven C. Miller: I’ve known Lochlyn [Munro] for a long time. We’ve always wanted to do a movie together, and he lives in Vancouver, so it was an easy phone call for me to say, dude, come out. We’re going to be there for a day. I need you to come hang out and do this scene. And he was game for it. He loved it, and he was a trooper.

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MovieWeb: It was a lot of fun to see Lochlyn as the film started. With our dependence on technology, it made a lot of sense to have your film’s AI so evolved, even in some surprising ways. Was that an important part of the story for you?

Steven C. Miller: Technology evolves so rapidly, and I feel like we’re not even close to what it already is and what people have ready for us later. That’s sort of what I looked at with Margaux. If you walked into a smart house like this, I don’t think it’d be on the same level. I think it would have already rapidly evolved past what we think it could do, and once it takes over, what does that look like? That’s something I explored with the writers very early on when I got the script is how can we keep pushing the boundary of what she’s able to do. And what could be done in this kind of scenario later on, especially with things like VR? Like, what would she be able to create with that?

That’s where a lot of the technology was born from, and me loving films that do a lot of duplicating and things like that. I really wanted to get some kind of element that was physical with the technology that allowed her to be something relatable.

More Horror Is on the Way From Miller

MovieWeb: Before we wrap, are any upcoming projects on the horizon?

Steven C. Miller: I’m staying with horror. The one I just did is a werewolf movie with Frank Grillo called Year 2. We just finished shooting in Puerto Rico. You know, werewolf movies are always crazy, and this one’s even crazier. It’s literally a werewolf pandemic, so everyone in this certain moonlight is turning into werewolves.

We had some amazing creatures built. It is all practical, and the guys are doing great work in these werewolf suits, and they look amazing. So, yeah, I’m really excited about it. We’re knee-deep in the edit right now, so it’s coming together and looking great.

MovieWeb: I’m sure we can all agree that more practical FX werewolf films are a great thing. They have always been the underdog of horror… excuse the pun.

Steven C. Miller: Well, they’re just so difficult to make and get right. The ones we all love do it strategically, and that’s something we talked about very early on when we started making the movie. It’s one that I think people are gonna really get excited about.

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