M3GAN – Film Review

M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a lifelike doll that’s programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by Gemma, a brilliant roboticist, M3GAN can listen, watch and learn as it plays the role of friend and teacher, playmate and protector. When Gemma becomes the unexpected caretaker of her 8-year-old niece, she decides to give the girl an M3GAN prototype, a decision that leads to unimaginable consequences.

The concept of a killer doll horror movie is so outdated to the point of hilarity. The Child’s Play / Chucky franchise pioneered this sub-genre of horror and is still going strong to this day (even after the massive failure that was the 2019 reboot featuring Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky).

Don’t get me wrong – I love killer doll movies. They’re honestly some of my favorite horror flicks because of just how off-the-wall crazy they can be. The Chucky movies aren’t as famous as they are because they’re game-changing pieces of cinema that changed how we view movies. They’re simply a ton of fun. People love to see people dying at the hands of a doll.

It’s weirdly hilarious and amusing. We view dolls exactly as they are. Inanimate objects. So when we watch a movie where they come to life and start to threaten society as we know it, our curiosity is naturally piqued. It’s actually a remarkably fascinating thing to ponder.

But as much as I love those kinds of movies, we needed a film to come along and change a few things up. To remind us of why we do enjoy these movies. And thankfully, Gerard Johnstone‘s M3GAN is exactly that kind of movie. It’s an absurdly campy science-fiction horror slasher that works unbelievably well.

This easily could’ve been one of the worst movies of the entire year had the script been written by anybody else, but when you bring in Malignant screenwriter Akela Cooper, you know you’re in for a treat. Malignant was also a campy horror film that was absolutely fantastic due to just how much it embraced its silliness.

M3GAN is the exact same. The filmmakers let you know in the first scene that this movie is rather goofy. Nothing in the film is meant to be taken seriously, and that’s totally okay because it’s all just so much fun to see this eccentric robotic doll doing random, creepy things.

There’s even a scene in this film in which the titular doll bursts out into song and starts belting “Titanium” by David Guetta featuring Sia that made my entire theatre erupt with laughter. If that sounds like the kind of movie that you’d get a kick out of, then you should definitely go ahead and see it.

But even when the film isn’t being outrageously silly, it still finds ways to be quite intriguing and investing. Throughout the course of the movie, we follow Gemma’s life and career as she desperately attempts to get the M3GAN doll on store shelves as she know it’ll make her filthy rich.

This character was in danger of being an annoying, spoiled-brat type character but thankfully, Gemma serves as a wonderful lead protagonist that we can get behind. Allison Williams does a marvelous job in the role, which made me quite happy especially since she hasn’t done much since Get Out in 2017.

Violet McGraw also does a great job as Cady – Gemma’s orphaned niece who lost her parents in a terrifying car accident in the middle of a harsh snow storm. She perfectly encapsulates the childlike wonder that this character needed to have, and she also has terrific chemistry with co-star Williams. They feel so real and believable here.

There are some instances, though, in which M3GAN can be a bit too much to handle. For example, there’s one scene relatively early on where they may as well have just had a character look directly at the screen and tell the audience “We’re going to explore this more in the sequel!”

Additionally, there needed to be more scenes with the M3GAN doll actually doing “scary” things because we don’t really get a whole lot of that in this film believe it or not. Most of the film is spent focusing on the relationship between Gemma and Cady, which is great because it serves as a great character study horror film, but it would’ve been nice to have seen M3GAN rack up a few more kills.

Speaking of kills – they’re a bit too watered down for my liking. The kills are quite fun and inventive, but they almost always cut away right when something extremely violent is about to occur. There’s a great scene in the second act in which M3GAN rips someone’s ear clean off but we don’t actually see her do it. We just see the bloody aftermath of it.

Was this because of budgetary constraints or was this because they wanted to appeal to a more wide, PG-13 friendly audience? My bet is the latter. They knew that tons of people were going to flock to the theatres to see this movie as soon as that trailer featuring Taylor Swift‘s “It’s Nice To Have A Friend” was released online.

Even with a lot of flaws, however, this is a blast of a horror movie that never once felt boring. It definitely seems as though they’re going to eventually make a sequel to this which I’m now quite excited for. Move aside, Chucky, because everyone’s about to have a new favorite killer doll in town.

M3GAN is an absurdly goofy, self-aware science-fiction horror slasher that packs plenty of well-delivered laughs, thrills, and just the right amount of chills.