M3GAN Review by Eric Lindbom
Though she stands four feet tall, the robot super friend M3GAN (in theaters) is already a box office heavy weight and a memorable monster. If Siri and Alexa can seem too smart for our own good, this paranoid babysitter does more than eavesdrop and can bring deadly outcomes to anyone in her way.
Allison (GIRLS) Williams is well cast as work-obsessed Gemma, a master rationalizer who builds futuristic toys for the Funki company. She turns reluctant caretaker when charged with caring for her 8-year-old, orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw) whose parents died in a car accident. Feeling ill equipped to raise Cady, she pawns off those duties to M3GAN, her prototype for the ultimate thinking/speaking mega toy and Gemma’s top secret work project. Besotted, Cady is soon joined at the (metal) hip with M3GAN while also serving as an instant focus group for her inventor aunt. M3GAN inevitably takes her job too seriously and turns murderously overprotective of her charge.
The shrewd script by Akela Cooper (who penned the wilder and woolier MALIGNANT) ably mines two twin fears: technology displacing us (even we ink stained/keyboard pounding wretches) and the tug o ‘war between careerism and responsible parenting.
M3GAN herself, a blonde with an eerie resemblance to actor Elizabeth Olson, is portrayed both by an animatronic puppet and a masked human (first-time actor Amie Donald came up with the dance moves that made the character a TikTok sensation). Like Chuckie before her, M3GAN slings caustic one liners but director Gerard Johnstone maintains a steady balance between the comedic elements and the dramatic needs of his characters.
For all M3GAN does right there are some design glitches. The few victims offed prove so obnoxious we root for their demise. One minor spoiler (concerning a single sequence): Generally, daring to kill a child is an audacious move but the one-note bully M3GAN dispatches can’t die soon enough for us; if said ‘troubled’ boy earned an iota of audience sympathy his demise would have implicated the audience beyond encouraging it to hoot and holler.
The film also lacks that gotcha moment of shock that causes some viewers to cover their eyes and weathered fright fans to flash their Jack O’ Lantern smiles. Lacking intense scares or nightmare inducing kills, its MOR approach earned an PG-13 rather than the R rating that’s the Good (Haunted) Housekeeping Seal for us horror extremists. Screenwriter Cooper has said Universal sought the lighter rating to pull in brave kids and pre-teens after the trailer of dancing M3GAN went viral. An age-inappropriate audience of tykes graced my showing at a crowded LA theater, so I felt relieved for them it wasn’t as hardcore as I usually prefer.
These quibbles won’t slow this unusually accessible horror vehicle which displays the reliable quality control and Zeitgeist instincts of two masterful spook factories : James Wan’s Atomic Monster Productions and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Studios. Expect additional installments.
Eric Lindbom is a hardcore horror buff with a strong stomach, weaned on the Universal classics from the ’30s and ’40s. He’s written film and/or music reviews for City Pages, Twin Cities Reader, LA WEEKLY, Request magazine and Netflix. He co-edits triggerwarningshortfiction.com, a site specializing in horror, fantasy and crime short stories with illustrations by co-editor John Skewes. He lives in Los Angeles.
