When the trailer to M3GAN first landed, the one thing that everyone seemed to take away from it – and which immediately becoming a meme – was the M3GAN dance. Watching this robot, prancing about, gyrating, and cartwheeling, was the perfect fodder for the Internet. It eventually became so viral that the dance ended up being used as marketing and publicity for the movie. Universal even hired M3GANs to dance it at the movie’s red carpet premiere.
Now at first, I thought this was fairly lazy marketing, leeching off a viral success in order to market the film. But I was completely wrong. Because that should have been the first sign at how completely out there this film was truly going to be.
With filmmaking, there’s a fairly common rule that dictates that your first five to ten minutes essentially sets the tone for the entire movie. It’s a fairly important concept as it determines what the rest of the cinematic experience will be like. As I sat down in the hall, eagerly awaiting the latest twisted offering from the mind of James Wan, I was wondering what sort of a film this would be. But as soon as the movie opened with a toy advertisement where the jingle itself brutally encouraged you to get their new toy because your favourite dog has died, I knew I was all in. This brief minute and a half sequence, beautifully told me, just exactly the kind of ride I’d be in for with M3GAN.
Child’s Play
Without giving too much away (to be fair, there’s not much to give away anyway), M3GAN follows the story of a young girl, Cady (Violet McGraw), whose parents are violently killed in a car crash, and finds herself under the care of her aunt and roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams). As Cady grows more and more despondent, Gemma decides to bring a new friend into her little niece’s life. This friend comes in the form of a highly intelligent, life-sized robot doll simply known as, M3GAN. But as with every horror thriller, things soon go awry and dangerously out of control.
Now the whole concept of an evil killer doll, android or otherwise, isn’t exactly groundbreaking within the horror genre. From the terrifying hauntings of Annabelle, to the insanity of Puppet Master, to possibly the most famous killer doll of them all, Chucky from Child’s Play, the formula has been done do death. (Pun intended.) Writer, producer, and horror expert James Wan, however, has masterfully been able to add a little extra spice to keep this genre of film alive and exciting. He does this by not taking this film seriously in the slightest.
What Wan and director Gerard Johnstone were able to pull off is a film that you can not only scream to but also laugh with. This is what makes M3GAN intriguing, exciting, and incredibly smart. Following in the footsteps of Scream and Evil Dead 2, M3GAN subtly pokes fun at the horror genre in general, with enough references to modern day robotics, that it feels like a slightly satirical episode of Black Mirror.
She Sees You When You’re Sleeping
I genuinely enjoyed this film a lot more than I expected to. This is probably what the Child’s Play reboot was going for, but failed massively. M3GAN addresses those questions about the inevitable future of robotic toys, and the pitfalls that may come with it, from subtle jabs at the infamous Boston Dynamic lab test videos, to the sentient Google AI program, this is a fun take on how it could all go horribly wrong. Realistically, I doubt we’ll have a killing, dancing, running-on-all-fours robot who will serenade our children by singing “Titanium,” but it made for a really entertaining time at the movies.
M3GAN is truly this generation’s answer to the Child’s Play franchise. With many horror films these days taking themselves way too seriously (see: the Evil Dead reboot), it’s nice and refreshing to get an old-fashioned, straight up, slightly fantastical genre piece that will not only keep you entertained but, with a bit of luck, spawn an entire franchise of its own. Who knows where M3GAN’s journey will go from here, but you can be damned sure there’ll be at least one writer eagerly anticipating her next gruesome, insane, melodic adventure.
Follow Us