M3GAN, 2023. Written by Akela Cooper & James Wan. Directed by Gerard Johnstone. Staring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Lori Dungey, Amy Usherwood, Natasha Kojic, Kira Josephson and Millen Baird.
A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that takes on a life of its own.
Sounds simple, right? Perhaps a little predictable? Well, it wasn’t! M3GAN was a fun film with some good nods to classic horror thrown in. There were vibes of Chucky, a scene in particular that gave me The Shining vibes, and Megan was a doll with a sinister sense of humor. I can only imagine how many young girls will dress like Megan for Halloween in 2023! There was even a funny scene where Megan sang Caddy to sleep by singing Titanium by Sia. It was a great touch that suited the movie well.
This film starts with a classic Disney movie move; a young family going on an adventure, then the parents die. Yes, we have seen this over and over. But this movie did well to build the characters and story well without being too direct or overly complicated. Violet McGraw, who plays niece Caddy, gave a fantastic performance as did Allison Williams, who was Caddy’s aunt in the movie. Gemma (Violet) is a standalone character that dedicates her life to technology and works for a massive toy firm who are under pressure to come up with the next best thing. However, after Violet’s sister’s death, Violet must look after Caddy as her own. And what better way to distract her niece than to invent a life like-doll that can look after her so she may get on with her all important work? This develops into a mega episode of Black Mirror as the Ai doll learns just a little too much and becomes way too independent.
The doll, Megan, is voiced by actor Amie Donald. There really is something creepy about Megan. How she stares in the night, how she silently moves around and appears just when you don’t want it to. And, of course, when you are freaked out and trying to be devious, Megan knows exactly what your emotional state is. It wouldn’t surprise me if the next movie in this franchise showed a new company producing a version of Megan, and that company being called Skynet! After all, the robots’ primary aim is to protect the child. That really does sound familiar.
Don’t let that put you off. This movie is a lot of fun and I enjoyed it more than expected. Certainly check this out.
The WCCS gives this movie a good 4/5.
Watch the trailer here: