Anya Taylor-Joy, Shining Bright, Not Afraid Of The Dark

Lessons should be learned by now since it’s almost been 100 years since the first real exploratory film that exploded upon the screen in 1931 was a cautionary tale about why you should not try to create artificial life forms that resemble and behave (most often very badly) like human beings.

Frankenstein is a 1931 American pre-Code horror monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling (which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley), about a scientist and his assistant who dig up corpses to build a man animated by electricity, but his assistant accidentally gives the creature an abnormal, murderer’s brain and murder he did.

fciwomenswrestling.com, femcompetitor.com article, Universal Pictures photo

The resultant monster is portrayed by Boris Karloff in the film.

A hit with both audiences and critics, the film was followed by multiple sequels and has become arguably the most iconic horror film in history.

We move up the timeline to the 1970s where artificial life forms are not only created to look and behave like humans, tourists are encouraged to hang out with them.

At least they tried to hide Frankenstein from the public.

Westworld is a 1973 American science fiction Western thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton about amusement park androids that malfunction and begin killing visitors.

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There you go. Artificial life forms killing people…….again.

It stars Yul Brynner as an android (behaving badly) in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.

Customers immensely enjoy this high-tech, highly realistic adult amusement park called Delos which features three themed “worlds”—Westworld (the American Old West), Medievalworld (medieval Europe), and Romanworld (the ancient Roman city of Pompeii).

The resort’s three “worlds” are populated with lifelike androids that are practically indistinguishable from human beings, each programmed in character for their assigned historical environment.

Guests may indulge in any adventure with the android population of the park, including sexual encounters and even a fight to the death.

Unfortunately one android in particular didn’t get the memo which expressed in no uncertain terms that you aren’t supposed to kill the guests.

Hold on some would say. We will eventually get it right. It will just take some time.

Okay fine, let’s travel forward to the far distant future where some would point to the very friendly Star Trek android Data.

It’s the 24^th Century (music playing in the background Zager and Evans In The Year 2525).

He didn’t kill people, right?

Virtually never but once he sure thought about it.

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“The Most Toys” is the 22nd episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the 70th episode of the series overall.

Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode, Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner) is kidnapped by an obsessive collector, who leads the Enterprise crew to believe that Data was destroyed in a shuttlecraft accident.

Actually he wasn’t killed. Instead he became a trophy for the ruthless trader. When Data was about to be rescued and was back aboard the Enterprise, they were a little puzzled that his phaser, aimed at the trader, was set to kill.

Oops.

Even Data?

Will the human race ever learn?

If you try and create an artificial lifeform, you’re not just a Mad Scientist, an argument could be made that you are simply MAD.

Having said all of that, like the scientific team that created, nurtured, spoiled and fell in love with Morgan, you would think that hope (and foolishness) springs eternal.

Morgan wouldn’t harm anyone, right?

I mean in the opening scene when she leaps across the table and tries to gauge a fellow team members eyes out like a scoop of ice cream, that’s just an aberration, true? That’s not who she really is, okay?

She’s just not herself.

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Morgan is a 2016 American science fiction horror film directed by Luke Scott in his directorial debut and written by Seth Owen. The film features an ensemble cast, including Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Paul Giamatti.

Filming began on May 26, 2015, in Northern Ireland. The film was released on September 2, 2016, by 20th Century Fox.

The storyline goes, Lee Weathers is a “risk-management specialist” for genetic-engineering company SynSect. She arrives at a rural site hosting its L-9 project, an artificial being with nanotechnology-infused synthetic DNA named Morgan.

The “hybrid biological organism with the capacity for autonomous decision making and sophisticated emotional responses” is smarter than humans and matures quickly, walking and talking within a month and physically a teenager despite being five years old.

One other thing that they left out in the above description.

She kills people too. In very brutal and painful fashion.

Please just take our word for it. In their review of Morgan, the stellar movie reviewers at rogerebert.com warn, “Films often impart important life lessons in the guise of entertainment. Do not be tempted to play God and create an artificial, human-like being. Such incidents of hubris almost never turn out well.”

We absolutely loved the film Morgan and look at it this way; at least we got a chance to watch the entrancing Anya Taylor-Joy work her youthful magic.

Anya Taylor-Joy is an American-born Argentine-British actress.

She is best known for her starring role as Thomasin in the horror film The Witch (2015) and as Casey Cooke in the horror-thriller film Split (2016). She was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2017.

In 2016 she also starred in Vikram Gandhi’s film Barry, which focused on a young Barack Obama in 1981 New York City. Anya played one of Mr. Obama’s close friends.

Anya was born in Miami, Florida, the youngest of six children.

Her mother worked in photography and interior design and is South African–Spanish. Her father, a former international banker, is Scottish–Argentinian.

The closer we look at Anya, who as of this writing is only 21, her body of work is incredible for someone so young. Her range is incredible.

She seems to never have met a horror film that she was afraid of or to act in.

Apparently she was created by very bright artistic people.

Spectacular.

She looks human, speaks perfectly, is absolutely childlike and gorgeous and can act brilliantly.

We say that with a word of artificial intelligence caution. In her interview with independent.co.uk when asked if she feels that she is missing out on the common experiences shared by other young people her age, she replied (just like a human on scarier), “No. I never fit in with people my own age. I grew up around adults. I was separated from everyone in my age group by a sheet of glass. I found my place in movies.”

Okay, cool, cool, cool (our hands nervously shaking).