With a wildly successful marketing campaign that has grown into an entity in and of itself, Blumhouse and producer/writer James Wan created a meme-worthy fervor for the silicone-skinned subject of their latest foray into modern horror. Namely, the mod-era dressed automaton turned sentient murder bot, M3GAN. With her near uncanny valley glare and TikTok-worthy dance moves, director Gerard Johnson has crafted a killer doll spectacle steeped in a landscape of screentime overstimulation, mental health trauma, modern parenting, and consumer culture.
Better Living Through Robotics?
All too often modern entertainment reacquaints audiences with well-treaded concepts proven to lend themselves to variations on the seed from which they sprouted and M3GAN definitely ticks all of the boxes of a killer doll flick. As the movie opens, the story leans into one of its core ideas with a hyper-realistic commercial for an obnoxious farting Furby-Esque interactive toy, Purrpetual Pet, created by the Funki Toy Company. Enter Allison Williams as Gemma, a brilliant, and perpetually single, roboticist secretly working with her team (Jen Van Epps and Brian Jordan Alvarez) to make the next Funki innovation, the Model 3 Generative Android aka M3GAN. Designed to be more than just a goofy plaything, the A.I. toy is meant to be a helping hand for busy parents by becoming a caring companion capable of playing, educating, and even bonding with a child. Having spent $100,000 of the company’s money to develop the prototype, Gemma must prove her invention viable in order to not be sued by her overbearing boss David, played with a heavy dose of comedic smarm by Ronny Chieng.
Cut to a snow-covered road where young Cady (Violet McGraw) plays with her boisterous Purrpetual Pet in the backseat of her parent’s car, a gift from her Aunt Gemma. What follows is an argument between Cady’s parents as they bicker about the distraction of their daughter’s new-fangled toy and the lack of snow chains on their slaloming vehicle. You can guess what comes next. The only survivor of a violent car accident, Cady is sent to live with Gemma, who is ill-equipped emotionally to raise her traumatized niece. Inspired to complete M3GAN as a tool for comforting her emotionally lost ward, Gemma begins a trial run of the helper bot with test subject Cady, who forms an immediate bond with the doll.
Love, Death, And Robots
All of the usual tropes and expendable characters found in an evil doll movie are placed front and center throughout the blessedly tolerable 1-hour 42-minute runtime, though the doll actually getting around to any real harm bogs the film down the midpoint. A big complaint would be the arduous set-up to the inevitable. The filmmakers take their time building to the first kill, which could have been remedied by shaving down the blatant character beats and getting to the mayhem more efficiently. Which, when it begins is as obvious as it is satisfying.
Throughout, Williams‘s portrayal of Gemma’s incompetence as a guardian reflects the broken psyche of Violet McGraw‘s Cady. The pair feel natural in their uneasy familial relationship, mostly due to the emotionally lost performance displayed by McGraw, who approaches the role of Cady with a staggeringly believable, inner turmoil. The struggle between the leads is only heightened by the inclusion of M3GAN. What begins as a security blanket for the child soon distorts into a pseudo-mothering dynamic with the doll. Gemma proves she is more comfortable talking a problem-solving through technology than nurturing the child herself. This, besides the promise of a murder doll Boogalooing through its victims, is the true conflict of the plot.
The relationship between Cady and M3GAN is complex. M3GAN, in its preprogrammed way, truly cares for Cady as a friend, sister, and ultimately a mother. It fulfills the emotional needs left unattended by the loss of her parents and Gemma’s lack of experience, prompting the aunt to slowly reevaluate how she has failed with Cady. It’s worth noting, had this narrative been treated in a more highbrow manner, a far more interesting exploration of physiological trauma could have been achieved. This is not to say the film is lacking. Far from it. For what is a PG-13 slasher, there is a dense layer of thoughtful ideas peppered throughout.
Can We Talk About The Android In The Room?
One would imagine the most daunting hurdle this film faced was the design of M3GAN itself. All too easily, the child-sized robot girl could have come off as a creep-inducing Real Doll, though by using a mix of animatronic puppetry, CGI, and actress Amie Donald. The result is a slick blending of effects creating a tangible figure for both the actors and the audience to react to. M3GAN as a character is disturbing, menacing, and in a devious way, oddly charming. Played for as many laughs as jump scares, the mannerisms are disarming, lulling the viewer into a false sense of security even though it is apparent where the story is going.
There is a playfulness to M3GAN as the robot unravels. Much like the comedic tongue-in-cheek office life at Funki Toys, M3GAN is given plenty of pre-slaughter gallows humor that ingratiates the character into the pantheon of memorable on-screen baddies. Voiced by Jenna Davis, the dialogue fluctuates from sterile and cold to a ‘shit-eating grin’ delivery, bringing an eerie duality to M3GAN. The same can be said for how the doll moves from scene to scene. Stiff, robotic gestures effortlessly evolve into smooth athletic maneuvers with animalistic qualities. It’s rare that a shot of M3GAN isn’t thought out to a tee.
Analysis Complete
As stated previously, the killer doll genre, if it can be called such, has had a well-laid foundation in horror as far back as The Great Gabbo (1929) to the Child’s Play franchise. Talking Tina scared viewers on The Twilight Zone, while Annabelle brought the concept to a new generation. Although, the less-than-stellar Child’s Play Reboot (2019) comes to mind when the credits roll on M3GAN, with the latter achieving the same goal of an A.I. toy becoming a vengeful death machine with access to all things with Wi-Fi where the new Chucky came up short.
The question remains, does this film hold up to the viral hypebeast it became weeks before release? For the most part, yes, though points off for going PG-13 instead of R in terms of gore. A choice that tainted the end result with a toothless, wider audience sheen. But it’s not a deal breaker by any means. A definite recommend, M3GAN, while more of the same, is far more thoughtful both creatively and narratively than so many of its predecessors.
M3gan was released in theaters on January 6, 2023!
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