I wrote up the intriguing first teaser for Morgan when it dropped earlier in the month, and now a full-length trailer has been released that gives a better sense of the fillm”s storyline. In a nutshell: a bunch of ambitious scientists create an “artificial” being in a laboratory, artificial being grows into The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy, artificial being begins exhibiting terrifying and potentially deadly behavior, young corporate executive (Kate Mara) shows up to investigate and becomes caught in a cat-and-mouse game with the creature/human.
Here”s something else interesting: Morgan is the feature directorial debut of Ridley Scott”s son Luke Scott, and judging from the trailer the film actually shares a few strands of DNA in common with his father”s seminal sci-fi/horror masterpiece Alien. For example:
1. Both films feature a private corporation that gets wrapped up in ethical questions around the prospective termination (or salvation) of a dangerous new being;
2. Both films feature a strong female protagonist;
3. Both films feature a potentially deadly being that grows at an extraordinarily fast rate;
4. Both films feature a group of characters who are stalked by said dangerous being in an isolated location;
5. Both films boast a central computer system that speaks in an inflectionless female voice;
6. Both films feature ominous countdowns voiced by said inflectionless female voice.
None of this is to say that Luke Scott is copping moves from his famous father, or that he isn”t a talented voice in his own right — indeed, the films appear more different than they do alike — but it is interesting how many themes and plot elements they share in common just based on two-and-a-half minutes of footage. We”ll obviously get a better sense of these seeming similarities once Morgan hits theaters, which it”s set to do on September 2.