JP Nunez
I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t always super excited about M3GAN. The concept reminded me a bit too much of the divisive 2019 Child’s Play remake (which I didn’t like), and I thought the trailers were just decent, so up until about a month or so ago, I was pretty skeptical about this film. But then I started hearing some positive buzz about it, and I slowly became more and more optimistic. I ended up going into the movie with fairly high expectations, and I’m happy to report that I was not disappointed.
M3GAN was directed by Gerard Johnstone, and it stars Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, and Ronny Chieng. It’s a horror comedy about a young girl named Cady who comes under the care of her roboticist aunt Gemma after her parents die in a car accident. At first, Cady is predictably despondent, but when Gemma gives her the prototype for M3GAN (short for Model 3 Generative Android), a new AI doll she’s been working on, everything changes.
It becomes Cady’s best friend, and the girl becomes super attached to it. However, as with just about every AI story ever told, things don’t go quite as smoothly as planned. Soon enough, M3GAN evolves beyond its initial programming, and the android goes on a deadly rampage.
Right from the get-go, I knew I was going to like M3GAN. It opens with a really funny toy commercial that sets the tone for the entire film, and it’s awesome. It made me laugh out loud, and the rest of the movie was just as funny. To be fair, it’s not all comedy all the time, but when the film goes for a laugh, it succeeds way more often than not.
In fact, I’d even say this movie has an almost perfect amount of humor. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, M3GAN could’ve very easily felt like a silly parody of Chucky, but director Gerard Johnstone never lets that happen. Instead, he actually tells a fairly serious story that might even have you wiping your eyes a couple of times, but he also peppers in just enough comedy that the movie never feels too heavy. It’s a pretty delicate balancing act, and Johnstone pulls it off without breaking a sweat.
On top of that, this film also features an amazing lead performance by Violet McGraw as Cady. I first saw her in Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House, and I’ve been a huge fan of hers ever since. She’s one of the absolute best child actors working today, and she shows off some serious chops in this movie.
Gerard Johnstone asks her to hit a wide range of emotional beats, including depression, joy, anger, and fear, and she completely nails every single one of them. In fact, she’s so good that you feel Cady’s emotions with her. For example, your heart will break for her when she’s sad after her parents death, and when she starts to find some happiness in her new life with Gemma, you can’t help but be elated that she’s finally turning a corner.
The rest of the cast is pretty good too, and together, they ground the story in a sense of genuine humanity. For the most part, these characters feel like real people, not just walking plot points, so it’s super easy to connect with them and care about what happens to them.
And that’s really important because the horror doesn’t kick into gear until about the one-hour mark. Sure, you get a handful of spooky moments before that, but they’re very few and far between. Instead, the first hour of M3GAN is more interested in establishing the characters and the world they live in, so if they don’t work, the film as a whole won’t work. Luckily though, everybody in this movie is really good and really likable, so I never found myself wondering when I would finally get to the “good stuff.”
Then, when the horror ramps up in the last 40 minutes, it’s awesome. This film is rated PG-13, but don’t let that fool you. PG-13 movies can be just as good as their R-rated counterparts, and M3GAN shows us exactly why. While it’s pretty light on the blood and gore, it more than makes up for that in tension and creepiness. The android is absolutely terrifying when it goes on the attack, so trust me, you don’t need to see the kills in all their violent glory to feel the fear this thing instills in its victims.
Last but not least, let’s talk about the film’s message. As you might expect, it’s all about the dangers of technology, especially for kids, and I think this may end up being the most divisive thing about the movie. Gerard Johnstone lays it on pretty thick, so although I personally didn’t have too much of a problem with it, even I have to admit that he probably would’ve been better off making the message a bit more subtle.
But in the grand scheme of things, that’s a very minor flaw (if you even consider it a flaw!), so at the end of the day, I’m happy to report that I absolutely loved M3GAN. It’s the perfect blend of humor, horror, and heart, and it’ll have you crying and laughing just as often as you squirm in your seat. This film kicks off 2023 with a bang, so if you’re itching for some good new horror this year, I highly recommend that you check this one out.
M3GAN is playing in theaters right now.
