Spoilers ahead!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen or heard something about Blumhouse Productions’ latest film “M3GAN,” a horror flick about an AI-controlled, uncanny valley-type animatronic doll who has a taste for dancing, singing and murder.
The film is centered around the recently orphaned Cady (Violet McGraw) who’s sent to live with her robot-making aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), who works for a high-end toy company called Funki. Gemma is developing M3GAN, short for Model 3 Generative Android, a life-sized companion doll to aid their assigned child in whatever they need whilst being incredibly loyal to them. As in many robots-gone-wrong films, M3GAN (performed by the child actor Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) becomes sentient and begins her killing spree.
What’s more striking about “M3GAN” is not the film’s actual content, albeit creative and humorous, but its guerilla-style marketing that has made “M3GAN” incredibly successful. In fact, the film has exceeded box office expectations with its $30 million debut, already making back its $12 million budget. “M3GAN” is expected to keep its box office numbers thriving.
Some examples of this kind of marketing have ranged from M3GAN dancing TikTok edits, to groups of M3GANs appearing at NFL halftimes, red carpets, Starbucks and performing at Universal’s catwalk.
Even the @meetM3GAN Twitter account will reply to direct messages as M3GAN, automating responses, sending GIFs or videos and even providing a link for the user to buy tickets. M3GAN even beefed with Chucky at one point.
It certainly helps that the voice behind M3GAN is familiar, played by actress Davis. She’s appeared on Disney’s “Raven’s Home,” but of course, she’s also known for the viral meme, “Penny, Nickel, Dime.”
“M3GAN” is smart enough for its own good, like its protagonist, not driving many real world points home, minus a bit about parents yielding technology to raise their kids. Director Gerard Johnstone rightly lets the film be zany, unbelievable and generally a great time for viewers. If M3GAN wants to break out into song for Cady in ridiculous moments, she does. If she wants to brutally murder an irritating neighbor, her vicious dog or anyone else who comes in her way, she does, as is her right!
Williams and McGraw deliver as a dysfunctional duo, both trying to cope with the loss of their family. As for M3GAN, her performance actress Donald needs the most praise of all, giving M3GAN that flare of authenticity with her spider-crawling motions, dance moves and more. Davis excels with M3GAN’s doll voice, coming off as bubbly and funny with one-liners, but still delivering on the diabolical tone when needed.
While the film dials back in its horror due to its PG-13 rating and cutaways during the murder scenes, it still delivers a bit of bite with its gore. According to screenwriter Akela Cooper, the original script was much, much gorier, but of course, it needed some tinkering to cater to more juvenile audiences — which proved to heighten the aforementioned box office numbers. The promising news though is that there’s an unrated, much gorier version of “M3GAN” in the works as well. According to Variety, a sequel for “M3GAN” had been discussed even before the film hit theaters, breaking producer Jason Blum’s no-sequels rule.
If you’re looking for a bit of fun, a killer robotic doll and some musical numbers, go see “M3GAN” in theaters now. If you don’t, M3GAN might just make you regret that.
