After an early scene in which eight-year-old Cady (Violet McGraw) loses her parents in a car wreck, one can be forgiven for suspecting that director Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN may be yet another modern horror film about trauma. But when Cady’s ever-busy Aunt Gemma (Alison Williams), a robotist for a global toy company, uses her newest invention—the Model 3 Generation Android, a.k.a. M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis)—as a stand-in to look after Cady, it becomes clear that the film’s only interest in trauma is in the ways that modern technology can allow us to forgo processing it in a healthy manner.
Audiences also see that Gemma selfishly uses Cady as a guinea pig, programming the lifelike four-foot-tall M3GAN to biologically “bond” with Cady by having the doll learn everything about the little girl. But if the film is a cautionary tale about adults shirking their responsibilities, as well as of the dangers of artificial intelligence, the film is primarily using those elements as a means to an end—that end being the filmmakers’ scheme to have audiences thrill to the sight of a creepy doll skulking around and transforming into a lethal, over-protective stalker.
M3GAN will draw obvious comparisons to the Chucky series, as well as Annabelle, but it actually shares more DNA with Single White Female and Fatal Attraction. It’s all patently absurd, as the film’s levity and archness isn’t what one expects from a story about a newly orphaned child. Indeed, the filmmakers really lean into the almost inherent silliness of a robo-femme killer, using jump scares that reveal her lurking presence more to incite laughter than horror. They even give her several timely, humorous musical interludes, including a particularly choice one set to the tune of David Guetta and Sia’s “Titanium.”
M3GAN’s emerging sense of mischievousness as she sets out to outsmart the humans in her midst is ultimately mirrored by the film, which is eager to play up the robo-doll’s viciousness. Regrettably, though, M3GAN’s camp elements are more than a bit diluted by the paper-thin drama that plays out between Gemma and Cady. The film’s PG-13 rating also dulls the edges of some of the more memorable sequences that might have benefited from even more gore.
While we get a dose of such cruelty when M3GAN stretches a young boy’s ear out like it’s Play-Doh, you can frequently feel the filmmakers pulling their punches, especially in such moments as the one where she wields a machete. There’s enough sardonic humor to keep the proceedings edgy enough, but it’s hard not to wish that the filmmakers would’ve taken a cue from their eponymous villain and really pushed things past the boundaries of good taste.
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There’s got to be an unrated home video version in the works.
I think it would be a good idea if true horror fans skip the watered down cinema release and wait for the R rated streaming version instead.
Megan has become of my favorite horror movies now