Sinister dolls have stalked the shadows of plenty of horrors over the years – none, however, quite like M3GAN. Has Chucky ever interrupted a stabbing spree to sing Sia’s pop smash ‘Titanium’? Has Billy the Puppet ever broken into a TikTok-style dance before another Saw franchise victim met their violent demise? The spooky star of this Blumhouse black comedy even differs from The Conjuring’s Annabelle, despite spilling from the same imagination: where M3GAN producer and co-creator James Wan’s previous creation was powered by black magic, this one is powered by Black Mirror-esque technology instead.
The result is a deliciously camp hour-and-forty-five minutes of frights. Sure, there’s a Frankensteinian fable in here somewhere about the dangers of letting technology replace real-life human connection – but finding it requires sifting through piles of bodies (and the occasional ripped-off ear). M3GAN, you see, is all about fun – a fact made startlingly clear in its hilarious opening scene, mimicking a Saturday morning kids TV advert. Perhaps we should have seen that coming – the film’s screenplay was written by Akela Cooper, whose 2021 cult hit Malignant was one of the most deliriously unhinged horrors in recent memory.
M3GAN doesn’t quite match that movie’s originality or breakneck rhythms, with director Gerard Johnstone (best known for 2014’s Housebound) instead opting for a slow-burn pace that builds its tension patiently. By the time M3GAN is truly up and running though, like the sassy AI antagonist at the film’s murdersome core, there’s no stopping it. Is it plausible? Not especially; when mankind makes the civilisation-changing breakthrough in AI that allows true computer sentience, it probably won't be in the basement of a person who flogs Furbies for a living. Is it captivating, however? You bet.
