There are a few sub-genres in horror that I tend to stay away from, doll movies being one of them. I never grew up with the ‘Child’s Play’ franchise and I never dared to watch the ‘Annabelle’ movies so naturally, when the incredible promotional campaign for ‘M3GAN’ started, I was a bit weary of it. After putting her everywhere and making it impossible to not know about this movie, it started to pique my interest. I have been quite the fan of the ‘M3GAN‘ Twitter account and how it’s interacting with other iconic horror villains, namely Chucky. The movie looked funny, creepy and entertaining in all the right ways and it’s really the perfect January movie in that regard. With great word-of-mouth and great interest, I decided to go watch it with a friend tonight and I have to say that after ‘Scream (2022)’ and now ‘M3GAN‘, the curse of the horrible January horror movie may now be a thing of the past.

spoilers for ‘M3GAN‘ are featured in this review.

What is truly smart of this movie to do is that it does not go all out in this first outing. Sure there’s some action and the third act ends quite satisfactorily but it is evident that this is just a taste of what’s to come if this movie does well. It’s a very direct, 90-minute horror movie, which in my opinion, is one of the best kinds of movies there is. It’s not scary at all and it’s not a full-on comedy, it’s just one hell of an entertaining movie. From how it tackles trauma at a young age to how it explores our excessive use of technology, ‘M3GAN‘ is more than just a fun killer doll movie, in many ways, it’s an extension of what M3GAN the doll herself represents in the movie, an update on something that’s been done to death. We’ve had possessed dolls and demonic dolls but how about a doll that’s a bit too good at her job. What makes this new iconic horror villain so unique is that she is essentially doing nothing wrong, just obeying orders and taking them too far but at the end of the day she is a robot. Technology has advanced so much that giving it the orders of what is essentially a guardian, it has some pretty horrible effects and it was very interesting seeing that portrayed here with Cady (Violet McGraw). M3GAN’s sass and passive aggressiveness also give her a ton of personality, she never tries to hide the fact that she did kill people but she never gives a straight answer and that makes for some pretty humorous scenes. She is chaotic in all the right ways.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen quite a few new horror icons emerge from Pearl to Art the Clown to Valak (The Nun) and it is truly evident that M3GAN now joins that list as Blumhouse and Universal have been pushing this project for months with tons of great advertising and confidence and it truly paid off. She was a viral sensation before the movie even came out because of that one clip of her dancing, it doesn’t get any better than that. It might come as a shock to some that she does not really do much in the first half but what’s great about her is that she doesn’t solely rely on kills to be effective and intimidating. From her tone and delivery to how she uses her mind or protocol to get something, she is always one step ahead. That being said, seeing M3GAN getting bitten repeatedly and pulled through the fence by a dog was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and seeing her afterwards with messy hair and dirt on her face, it’s literally one meme after the other. My favourite kill of the movie has to be the one at the Funki Company where she kills Gemma’s boss after giving a once-in-a-lifetime performance. Everything from the music choice to her confident walk is perfect, she is simply iconic I don’t know what else to say.

Outside of M3GAN herself, the cast is fine. I felt like Allison Williams’s Gemma was very truly horrible at times, not the performance but the character. Such a selfish, unsympathetic character that never truly got a well-written arc. She doesn’t get a true redemption because I feel like the movie tries to put us on her side when Cady starts getting gradually more out of hand without M3GAN. Her entire life revolves around her career and there is obviously nothing wrong with that but in her tough situation she really did not give a damn about her niece. Even though M3GAN was a distraction, at least she was there which can’t be said for Gemma. The movie tries to put us on Gemma’s side when she tells Cady that the grief she is feeling and how horrible it is, it needs to be felt to move on. While I love that message, it seems like something Gemma should’ve done ages ago and the movie never really quite accomplishes to get us on her side, I hope M3GAN gets her in the sequel, I’m just gonna be honest about that. On that note, good for Cady for basically overcoming her grief by herself, McGraw does a great job with the performance. The rest of the cast is fine, I hope Gemma’s co-workers return for the sequel and have a bigger part, they were fun.

Overall, ‘M3GAN‘ is a perfectly entertaining hour and a half. It has the perfect runtime, the pacing is solid, the humour is there but I just feel like they were afraid to go all out which I’m hoping the sequel will do a better job of. As for M3GAN herself, I love her, I think she is a fantastic new creation and I’m sure Blumhouse and Universal are just ecstatic about their new franchise, I know I am. Maximum Slay, M3GAN!

‘M3GAN‘ is now showing in cinemas.