m3gan movie reviews

The marketing for “M3gan” has leaned into the uncanny spectacle of the title character, a four-foot-tall cyborg with big doe eyes, a ratty wig, and the wardrobe of a closeted lesbian headmistress in a ’50s melodrama. And it seems to be working: A well-placed GIF here, an activation with a half-dozen women in M3gan drag there, and Blumhouse—always expert at creating buzz—has generated more interest in “M3gan” than there’s been for the last five horror films dumped into the bleak theatrical landscape of early January. But the company could have gone another route as well. In case you haven’t heard, this film comes to you from the writer of “ Malignant .” 

For that film, James Wan directed a script by Akela Cooper , a longtime TV writer with a sideline in horror screenplays. The duo perfectly calibrated the movie’s blend of haunted-house scares and outrageous grotesquerie, enough to make “Malignant” a viral hit when it was released on HBO Max in the fall of 2021. Now Cooper is a horror screenwriter who also works in television, and she’s been brought into the Blumhouse fold to develop a sequel to the “Conjuring”-verse spin-off “ The Nun ” as well as writing “M3gan” from a story by herself and Wan. 

Like “Malignant,” “M3gan” knows it’s ridiculous. It fills a kiddie pool with ridiculousness and splashes around in it. Cooper’s screenplay for “M3gan” is more overtly comedic than “Malignant,” however, and has a more populist type of appeal as a result. (The audience at a Chicago preview of the film went crazy for it.) The themes are your classic “science gone amok” fare seen in everything from “Frankenstein” to “ Jurassic Park ,” combined with a more modern throughline exploring anxieties about motherhood and filtered through the knowingly silly lens of the “tiny terrors” subgenre. “Child’s Play” is the most famous example of that last category, and many comparisons have been and will be made between M3gan (an acronym for “Model 3 Generative ANdroid”) and Chucky. Their motivations are different, however: Chucky’s boy Andy was a victim of his doll as much as anyone else, while M3gan is fiercely protective of her girl, nine-year-old Cady ( Violet McGraw ). 

The film opens with a sequence that establishes its subsequent tone of garish satire and mischievous morbidity, as Cady plays with an obnoxious Furby-like toy called a Purrpetual Pet in the backseat of a car. She and her parents are on their way to an Oregon ski lodge for a winter vacation—until a snow plow appears out of nowhere, “ Final Destination ” style, and kills Cady’s parents. Cut to Gemma ( Allison Williams ), an inventor working for a high-tech toy company called Funki in Seattle. Gemma is Cady’s aunt and the girl’s legal guardian now that her sister and brother-in-law are dead. 

But Gemma isn’t a motherly type. She’s too busy with work to spend much time with Cady, for one. And although she works for a toy company, she keeps her toys—sorry, collectibles —in their boxes and on a shelf in her living room. But these two are now the only family the other one has. So they’ll have to learn to live together, at least well enough to satisfy a court-ordered psychiatrist who’s skeptical about Gemma’s parenting abilities.

Enter M3gan, who seems like the perfect solution to Gemma’s problem. An experimental prototype with a “ Short Circuit “ – style ability to memorize infinite amounts of information, M3gan can act as a teacher and babysitter who reminds Cady to use a coaster and wash her hands after using the bathroom. She’s what every kid needs, and every parent secretly wants: A 24/7 companion who frees up parents to live their own lives while their kids are preoccupied with their dolls. She’s going to make Gemma’s boss very, very rich—so rich, he rushes M3gan through beta testing with Cady as their only subject. That can’t go horribly wrong in any unforeseen way, right? 

With nimble direction from “ Housebound ” helmer Gerard Johnstone , “M3gan” does a good job of holistically incorporating its themes without being too heavy-handed. Sure, it’s technically “about” grief and what happens when the creation surpasses its creator. But more than that, it’s “about” pithy one-liners and black comedy and the unsettling sight of something that looks like a human being but doesn’t move or sound like one. The plot does have a few weak points and dangling threads, and the PG-13 rating ensures that the violence is tamped down before it can reach its full bloody potential. (A promising sequence of doll-based mayhem late in the film abruptly cuts off, suggesting MPAA-mandated cuts.) But the tongue-in-cheek tone is so consistent that “M3gan” is a hoot anyway. 

Johnstone reaps seemingly endless rewards from the uncanny valley aspect of M3gan’s character. He directs the petite stunt women who play her to move in odd, jerky gestures, which at different points recall everything from “Robocop” scanning criminals’ faces to Samara crawling out of the TV in “ The Ring ” to voguers high on their fabulousness. (He also uses what I can only describe as “skinned Furby” aesthetics at critical points throughout the film.) Combined with the doll’s sassy comebacks and dowdy sartorial sense, the effect is true camp—something that’s difficult to pull off in our irony-saturated age.

The quintessential “M3gan” moment comes midway through, when Cady and Gemma take a field trip to check out an alternative school Cady might be able to attend while Gemma is at work during the day. A teacher comes up to Gemma’s car, sees what she thinks are two girls sitting in the back seat, and greets them both. M3gan turns towards the woman with a stiff neck rotation and a whirring sound. “Jesus Christ!” the teacher cries, jumping backward and exhaling a nervous laugh. The audience laughs along with her. It’s the sensible response to seeing something like M3gan in the wild—it’s only through conditioning (or, in this case, advertising) that we learn to love her. 

Now playing in theaters. 

Katie Rife is a freelance writer and critic based in Chicago with a speciality in genre cinema. She worked as the News Editor of  The A.V. Club  from 2014-2019, and as Senior Editor of that site from 2019-2022. She currently writes about film for outlets like  Vulture, Rolling Stone, Indiewire, Polygon , and  RogerEbert.com.

• Allison Williams as Gemma
• Violet McGraw as Cady Ryan
• Jenna Davis as M3GAN (voice)
• Amie Donald as M3GAN
• Jen Van Epps as Tess
• Brian Jordan Alvarez as Cole
• Ronny Chieng as David Lin
• Stephane Garneau-Monten as Kurt
• Michael Saccente as Greg
• Akela Cooper

Writer (story by)

• Anthony Willis
• Gerard Johnstone
• Jeff McEvoy

Cinematographer

• Peter McCaffrey

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‘M3GAN’ Review: A Robot-Doll Sci-Fi Horror Movie That’s Creepy, Preposterous and Diverting

Allison Williams plays a robotics wiz who invents a doll that seems fake and real at the same time

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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Williams, who is one of the film’s executive producers (its two high-powered producer-auteurs are James Wan and Jason Blum), invests Gemma with a winningly jaunty, at times clueless hyperrationality that makes her both the film’s heroine and its rather innocent digital-age Dr. Frankenstein. Gemma, an obsessive prodigy of robotics, had been ordered by her boss to abandon the M3GAN project. But the film opens with a (contrived) cataclysm that nudges her into secretly going ahead with it. Her young niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), is on a ski trip with her parents when, in a freak accident, their car gets run over by a snowplow.

Gemma takes custody of the newly orphaned girl, and while she seems utterly adrift about what someone Cady’s age might need (like, say, a bedtime story), her failure as a caretaker is part of the film’s satirical design. “M3GAN” takes place in a world — ours — where parents, bemoaning how much screen time they allow their children, give into the impulse anyway, because it feels both easy and inevitable. The film says that we’re already letting computer technology raise our kids. M3GAN the willowy programmed companion who always says the perfect thing becomes the logical culmination of that trend.

Once Cady imprints her fingers in M3GAN’s palm, which automatically programs the doll to become her special companion, their relationship makes everything else seem boring, at least to Cady. The film parallels their insular friendship with Gemma’s attempt to turn M3GAN into a hot new product. She places Cady and M3GAN in a playroom behind one-way glass, using them to demonstrate the toy’s amazing abilities to her boss (played, with a riveting short fuse, by Ronny Chieng). He is sold, and begins to plan the marketing rollout of this revolutionary new toy, which will be put on sale at $10,000 a pop.

But the more they plan, the more that M3GAN, on her own, is causing mischief, starting with the confrontation she initiates with Gemma’s cranky next-door neighbor (Lori Dungey) and her dog. M3GAN has been programmed to have “emergent capabilities,” which means that the more she interacts with people the more she learns how to do. That certainly applies to her fighting style, a kind of stiff-limbed rapid zombie dance that leaves nothing in its wake. At a certain point, you realize that “M3GAN” has become a movie about a killer doll who knows how to use a nail gun.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, Jan. 3, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 102 MIN.

• Production: A Universal release of a Blumhouse Pictures, Atomic Monster production. Producers: Jason Blum, James Wan, Michael Clear, Couper Samuelson. Executive producers: Allison Williams, Greg Gilreath, Adam Hendricks, Mark David Katchur, Judson Scott, Ryan Turek.
• Crew: Director: Gerard Johnstone. Screenplay: Akela Cooper. Camera: Peter McCaffrey, Simon Raby. Editor: Jeff McEvoy. Music: Anthony Willis.
• With: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ronny Chieng, Jen Van Epps, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Lori Dungey, Jack Cassidy, Stephane Garneau-Monten.

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A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like robot doll that begins to take on a life of its own. A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like robot doll that begins to take on a life of its own. A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like robot doll that begins to take on a life of its own.

• Gerard Johnstone
• Akela Cooper
• Allison Williams
• Violet McGraw
• Ronny Chieng
• 1K User reviews
• 330 Critic reviews
• 72 Metascore
• 4 wins & 31 nominations

Top cast 30

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Amie Donald performed any of M3GAN's scenes that called for physical movement the puppet could not do. She also performed all of her own stunt work. Donald received movement coaching from Jed Brophy and Luke Hawker in portraying M3GAN's agility. On set, Donald wore a static silicone M3GAN mask created by Morot FX, and this was later replaced by a CGI version of M3GAN's face to match that of the animatronic.
• Goofs At 1h27m, a doorknob is pulled out of a door, including the long square shaft that goes in to the opposite doorknob. When the remaining knob is tried, it doesn't turn and seems firmly attached. Without the shaft connecting to its mate, the knob would be able to spin freely without opening the latch, and might even fall right off.

M3gan : Cady, seriously, flush the toilet.

• Alternate versions Unrated version restores various scenes which were trimmed/replaced for violence and language to secure a PG-13 rating.
• Connections Featured in Double Toasted: IS M3GAN'S MARKETING TOO MUCH? (2023)
• Soundtracks Purrpetual Pets (Theme) Written by Madison Davey, Tai Fronzaroli , Gerard Johnstone , and Devin S. Norris Performed by Devin S. Norris (as dv/sn), Madison Davey, Väärin Produced by Yellotone Music

User reviews 1K

• Sleepin_Dragon
• Jan 15, 2023
• How long is M3GAN? Powered by Alexa
• January 6, 2023 (United States)
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• $12,000,000 (estimated)
• $95,159,005
• $30,429,860
• Jan 8, 2023
• $180,089,109

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 42 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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M3GAN Reviews

Though all the special effects and artificial intelligence on display awe, the plot’s intentionally ludicrous second half and its mix of genres (comedy, horror and sci-fi) leave the film devoid of much needed conviction and substance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 18, 2024

A brilliantly fun juggling act of eerie themes, campy humour and sincere drama, there is something for everyone here.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 16, 2024

Films like M3GAN provide the right amount of clap-inducing ridiculousness you would want from a film about a killer toy that, ultimately, looks like Chucky's nepo-baby.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 5, 2024

This is a very well made and entertaining horror film, maybe the best I've seen since 'The Invisible Man' (2020).

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jan 27, 2024

M3GAN is chaotic, dumb — and nearly perfect. It's an off-the-wall, irreverent, and absolutely on-target sci-fi slasher-satire about a killer-kid robot ... [that] accomplishes nearly everything it attempts, and everything the buzz promised.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 16, 2023

Sometimes you know when something has cult-classic written all over it, and although M3GAN might be too of the moment to achieve that, it certainly has camp-classic stamped on it.

Full Review | Sep 6, 2023

Finally a killer doll movie where the doll doesn't just sit and turn its head. I need 10 more M3GAN Movies.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2023

Viewers will leave the theater with guilty-pleasure glee from drinking in M3gan’s witty escalating kill skills and choice of victims. The film’s worth the price of admission just to see the can-do doll’s rubbery smooth facial reactions.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 16, 2023

This movie doesn’t leave us as gagged as Cooper’s previous film, this one is smarter while checking most of the same boxes. So while haters are going to hate, M3GAN is refreshing, fun, and throwing us quite a bit to chew on without talking down to us.

Full Review | Aug 14, 2023

M3gan may not dream of electric sheep, but she’s got some killer dance moves and a CPU as delightfully wicked as any femme fatale.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Akela Cooper's premise is pushed to its limits - and even beyond - being elevated by excellent performances, a clever satirical narrative, eyebrow-raising killings, and meaningful messages about parenting and technology's role in a child's upbringing.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 25, 2023

Exactly what the trailer sells you on & some more! a completely self aware insane, Horror movie that has some great social commentary on parenting, AI, & DEATH.. You’ll laugh, you’ll jump, you’ll go home never wanting your kid to play with a toy again.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

M3GAN is a safe play. It’s a little weird, but nothing truly off-putting, vague enough to appeal to a multitude of demographics.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

The writing is a bit surface level and predictable, but it’s so easy to overlook all of that when you’re having a time that’s as fun as this movie is.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 19, 2023

Sharper and more satisfying than we have any right to expect a movie like this to be.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 25, 2023

Needless subplots and superfluous characters tend to distract, but when the malevolent AI is front and center, the movie really hums.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 1, 2023

A surprisingly effective and clever killer doll film. M3GAN instantly leaves her mark and solidifies herself as a new horror icon. But the real surprise is all the extra layers and ideas about technology, grief, and taking the easy way out.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 24, 2023

M3GAN is good at keeping us hooked to a film that we know how it will turn out. It never plays safe when putting children in danger and body count is terrifyingly high. This is one silly, but highly effective film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 23, 2023

Pleasing in its familiar, unsurprising lines, which are basically those of a Twilight Zone episode. I am not complaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 10, 2023

After quite a long build-up, the film doesn’t provide as much killer-doll action as we deserve, but the scenes we get are highly entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 2, 2023

M3GAN Review

The a.i. chucky remake walked so m3gan could tiktok dance..

M3GAN hits theaters on Jan. 6, 2023.

Gerard Johnstone's M3GAN proves itself more than gifable android dances and NFL halftime shows — a movie that pays off viral hype with the production goods. From the director of 2014's haunted-hilarious Housebound and Akela Cooper, the writer of 2021's madcap Malignant , comes an artificial intelligence thriller that fringes camp and trumps 2019’s inferior Child's Play reinvention. M3GAN nails this American Girl meets American Psycho vibe that accentuates an automaton's binary, soulless assessment of humankind's follies while still finding time for memeable horror entertainment. Don't expect perfection between flatter storytelling devices that clunkily push through familial drama or how humor overrides dolly-damndest frights, but do expect M3GAN to kickstart 2023's genre scene with an out-of-the-box playtime villain who does it all.

Allison Williams portrays the workaholic toy company roboticist Gemma, whose latest pet project for employer Funki is put on hold when disaster strikes. Gemma becomes her niece Cady's (Violet McGraw) guardian after a freak snow plow accident leaves Cady an orphan. Cooper's screenplay explores adolescent trauma after the death of parents when Gemma decides to enlist Cady as her newest invention's beta tester. Gemma introduces Cady to her A.I. supertoy M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis/acted by Amie Donald) — an all-in-one best friend, caretaker, and teacher with advanced learning capabilities that make Furby look like a paperweight. Cady and M3GAN form an inseparable bond to the delight of Gemma and Funki CEO David (Ronny Chieng) right before things go all Small Soldiers, Child's Play, [insert more toys gone evil flicks].

M3GAN strives to be a cautionary tale about our 21st-century obsession with technology through the eyes of a career woman thrust into motherhood not by choice, but fate. Williams and pint-sized Violet McGraw fortify a barrier between their characters on purpose — M3GAN is their savior. Cooper touches on Gemma's tragic negligence of Cady thanks to M3GAN's programmed services beyond companionship, subtly scolded by Gemma's coworker Tess (Jen Van Epps) in a world where iPads parent children. Two humans would rather interact with a software buffer than confront emotions caused by Cady's immeasurable loss or Gemma's world-turned dismay, which is so very 2020s. When Williams and McGraw escalate displeasure during dinner arguments or backseat tantrums, maternal tension holds steady.

Although, M3GAN sometimes struggles as an adoption drama where New Mommy and Obstinate Daughter butt heads over their heartbreaking lifestyle shake-ups. We're here for M3GAN's antics, yet the film's pacing makes audiences wait and wait before truly unhinging into massacre mode. Johnstone's so proficient at blending shudder-worthy horror with gut-busting hilarity that character-driven interludes feel slower, stunting momentum between M3GAN's evolution from observant supercomputer to plucky A.I. assassin. Blumhouse's decision to assure M3GAN's PG-13 rating through reshoots isn't a dealbreaker, but detracts from the already lesser emphasis on nightmarish scares, unlike Drag Me To Hell or Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (also PG-13'ers). It's a film that effortlessly entertains as a sassy techno-horror satire yet never feels evenly calibrated between M3GAN's villainous manipulation, the emotional fragility at stake, and exquisite killer doll frights.

What's your favorite evil doll movie?

Which brings us to the star of the show, Ms. M3GAN.

From M3GAN's titanium skeleton to her almost-human mannerisms, complete with disorienting glitches, she's a rubber-faced horror megastar. Johnstone's oddball sensibilities accentuate M3GAN's good-girl facade — he's the mastermind who suggested her iconic hallway dance choreography — as much as Jenna Davis' soothing Disney Channel voice. Cinematography creatively counteracts M3GAN's kiddie size against adult targets, framing a murderer to fear through towering shadows or concealed appearances. Then there's body actor Amie Donald's seamless transitioning between mechanical mannerisms and feral attack modes, which sells the whole dual-personality sociopath vibe. Teamwork makes the dream work as it takes a village to create and characterize M3GAN, sure to be one of 2023's standout horror icons.

When Johnstone executes what Johnstone does best — please, watch Housebound — M3GAN is bulletproof. Ronny Chieng busts some comedic zingers as an overeager toy company bro who, when excited, shouts about kicking Hasbro "in the dick." M3GAN was never meant to be played straight, which Cooper carries over from Malignant and Johnstone honors graciously. The more M3GAN's devious gazes and sarcastic threats emerge, the more Johnstone relishes the concept's apocalyptic implications when A.I. turns against its makers. The further M3GAN sells her superseding friendship directive paired with Cady, the quicker we're gifted over-the-top bedside Sia serenades and exquisitely bonkers M3GAN personality upgrades. Did I even hear M3GAN tickling Martika's "Toy Soldiers" on piano during a standoff conversation with Gemma? These are the moments that maketh M3GAN.

Best of Horror 2022

M3GAN lives up to its memeable pre-release hype for mostly better and sporadically worse. Gerard Johnstone was the correct director choice, and Akela Cooper attempts deeper storytelling explorations centered around contemporary technological distractions — but you're watching for M3GAN. That's why she dazzles as the titular tyrant ready to rumble in the name of hardcoded primary user love, even at a detriment to the scenes where she's relegated obsolete. Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, and other performers are granted their momentary standouts (Williams anchors scene after scene), only to concede spotlights because M3GAN is the reason for the horror season this winter. A genre star is born from motherboards and violence in a movie that begs to be a tad leaner yet delivers clip-worthy "horrortainment" nonetheless.

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‘m3gan’ review: allison williams tangles with a rogue robot in fun ai horror that’s equal parts campy and creepy.

A robotics scientist gives her orphaned niece a prototype synthetic companion in this killer doll thriller from producers Jason Blum and James Wan.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Right off the bat, the creative team let us know it’s OK to laugh, starting with what could almost be a Saturday Night Live parody commercial about the key advantage of robot pets over actual animals — they don’t die. The product being advertised by the Funki toy company is a PurRpetual Pet, a googly-eyed, troll-like furball that can talk and eat, as well as fart and crap cute pellets.

Ever since 8-year-old Cady (Violet McGraw) was sent one of the robo-pets as a birthday gift from her aunt Gemma ( Allison Williams ), her parents fret about the amount of time the girl is spending operating the gadget via her iPad. But their attempt to provide other distractions on a ski trip is cut short by a head-on collision with a snow truck. Gemma is granted temporary protective custody and Cady goes to stay with her aunt in the Seattle suburbs.

Orphaned Cady is understandably traumatized and disinclined to bond. But she sparks up when she sees Gemma’s college robotics project Bruce in action in a brief appearance that serves as foreshadowing for later, when the hulking AI contraption will come in handy.

David changes his mind about developing the M3GAN line once he observes the 4-foot doll interacting with Cady. That hilarious scene involves the robot whipping up a spitting-image portrait of Cady with a few swift strokes and just two colors of highlighter pens. “Will it cost more or less than a Tesla?” is David’s only question, before declaring, “We’re gonna kick Hasbro’s dick!”

At first Gemma is oblivious to the dangers of her niece’s new companion. She shrugs off a therapist’s warning about attachment theory, as well as the concerns of her colleague Tess (Jen Van Epps), who reminds her that M3GAN should be a tool to support traditional parenting, not replace it. But M3GAN’s programming is stronger on the constant quest for self-improvement than it is on parental controls, so the doll’s solemn duty to protect Cady from any threat soon yields casualties.

New Zealander Johnstone, who already showed a droll sense of humor in his 2014 debut feature Housebound , strikes an entertaining balance between comedy and carnage in the kills, and knows how to ratchet up suspense while feeding the laughs. Pacing in the early stages could be tighter, but the story builds satisfyingly as M3GAN starts realizing her full potential and Anthony Willis’ score shifts from foreboding mode into full-scale alarm.

The cast, particularly Williams and McGraw as the two principal figures initially on opposite sides of the M3GAN conflict, do everything that’s required of them in terms of reacting to the escalating mayhem. But this is a movie in which the deliciously menacing doll steals every scene.

Visual effects work to bring M3GAN to life — done at Peter Jackson’s Weta facilities in NZ — is first-rate. But it would be nothing without the physical embodiment of dance performer Amie Donald and voice work (including some gloriously cheesy songs) of Jenna Davis. M3GAN is fascinating to watch, whether she’s staring out a window with unnerving intent, busting some contortionist moves or simply cocking her head in a sudden tilt that induces both shivers and snickers.

In addition to its commentary on the pervasiveness of technology in modern parenting, the film’s takedown of corporate culture is amusing, with Chieng and Stephane Garneau-Monten as David’s belittled lackey injecting an understated goofiness that doesn’t spare them from harm.

M3GAN might be too frequently funny to be terrifying, but it’s never too silly to deliver tension and vicious thrills. It seems a safe bet that the killer doll will return, not to mention become an in-demand costume next Halloween.

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“M3GAN,” Reviewed: A Clever, Hollow A.I. Spin on “Frankenstein”

The essence of genre is effects without causes—things showing up to fulfill expectations rather than dramatic necessities. “M3GAN,” a science-fiction-based horror caper, provides a clever batch of these effects in this gleefully clever twist on the “Frankenstein” theme, and its director, Gerard Johnstone, seems to be laughing up his sleeve throughout. It’s that very knowingness, the deftness with which the film gets a rise from viewers, which makes a good time feel hollow. There’s a different, far more substantial movie lurking within, yet the virtues of efficiency, clarity, surprise, and wit that enliven the one that’s actually onscreen leave its merely implied substance tantalizingly unformed.

Allison Williams plays Gemma, a type-A robotics engineer with a big toy company in Seattle, Funki, that prospers by selling cheesily interactive furry toys called PurrPetual Petz. Gemma has bigger ideas. She has been working in secret, along with a pair of colleagues (Jen Van Epps and Brian Jordan Alvarez), on a boldly ambitious, potentially transformative project: a lifelike, life-size robotic doll equipped with A.I. that will serve children as a ready-made and full-time friend on demand. While Gemma is working, tragedy strikes: her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car crash. Her young niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), survives with only slight injuries, and Gemma becomes her legal guardian. Gemma, who lives alone, has little talent for parenting; on Cady’s first night in her aunt’s pristine house, Gemma reminds the child to put her bedside water glass on a coaster lest it stain the wood of the table.

Meanwhile, Gemma’s boss, David (Ronny Chieng), discovers Gemma’s secret invention and angrily orders her to work on a boringly commercial project. Instead, Gemma goes rogue and gets the titular A.I. robot ready for a test—for which she recruits Cady. (With its silicone face, M3gan, voiced by Jenna Davis, is eerily similar to a real child—a white girl, though Gemma and her colleagues foresee marketing the robot in a variety of shades to reflect different ethnicities. There’s no talk of a male version.) Cady quickly grows attached to M3gan (an acronym for Model 3 Generative Android), and Gemma brings the robot home, three birds with one stone: a playmate (and distraction) for Cady, a break from parenting for Gemma, an extreme test for the potential product. Gemma gives M3gan a mission to protect Cady from “emotional and physical harm,” but has neglected to build parental controls into the device, and has also neglected to build in guardrails of conduct, the mechanical equivalent of a moral code. Soon, M3gan, programmed to link with Cady as the primary user, takes the task of protecting her with ferocious literalness. A neighbor’s dog is perceived by M3gan as a mortal enemy; so is the dog’s owner (Lori Dungey); so is a bullying child (Jack Cassidy). Even a sympathetic psychologist (Amy Usherwood) risks being labelled a menace.

Johnstone endows M3gan with an arch, chilly, and chilling repertory of facial expressions and verbal inflections. The A.I. device’s learning curve is prodigious, and what M3gan calculates, very quickly, is that the best defense is a good offense. It goes from learning to recognize toys and means of conveyance to the use of power tools, driving a car, and computer hacking—and turns into a devastatingly efficient, ever-improving killing machine. What’s more, with its singular mission to protect Cady getting defined ever more broadly, M3gan becomes as hostile to anyone who’d shut it down as to anyone who’d mean harm to Cady. The robot’s mounting megalomania is the most fascinating aspect of “M3GAN”: in effect, the living doll turns into a little dictator and discovers, by way of its interaction with humans, how to instill fear—with taunting, with humor, with sarcasm, with lies, and with threats of cruelty. And, when threats turn into realities, M3gan has an autocrat’s instinct for covering tracks, destroying evidence, creating plausible deniability, and, when necessary, silencing witnesses.

The simulation of a mental life for M3gan is the most absorbing part of the movie. Johnstone (working with a script by Akela Cooper, who wrote the story with James Wan) offers images from M3gan’s visual point of view—a video screen that shows the robot’s camera scanning the environment, framing people and objects, and, in superimposed text, calculating, in real time, human subjects’ range of emotions, on a numerical scale. In these fleeting images, “M3GAN” passes into the question of what it would be like to be M3gan—whether an A.I. robot can be considered to have a sense of identity and an inner life, and, if so, what that experience would be. How does M3gan’s computer memory relate to human memory? How does its array of perceptions get converted into decisions? The mere tease of a theme is all the more frustrating inasmuch as impersonation proves to be one of the robot’s more fascinating skills—synthesizing the voices of others, for good or ill—and memory turns out to be one of its more useful functions, as a seeming repository of its owner’s life, a vast stock of home video and voice recordings.

If the movie suffers from the absence of a more substantial development of the titular robot’s character, it’s not least because “M3GAN” similarly stints on developing its human characters and doesn’t suggest what it would be like to be any of them, either. The script’s tut-tutting sketch of Gemma’s cold careerism, indifferent parenting, and hubristic engineering is suspended in a void that’s filled merely by Williams’s actorly presence and her recognizable persona. Cady is similarly undefined, and the supporting characters of colleagues and corporate overlords are reduced to clichés. (The movie merely winks and nods at the issue of children’s screen time.) These stock characters and the conventions that they fit into are ready-made to serve as a solid communal basis for daring efforts and wide-ranging audacities—to meet expectations in order to go beyond them. Instead, they merely furnish a flat backdrop to the exuberantly diabolical display of M3gan’s Machiavellian wiles and the Grand Guignol ingenuity of its methods of mayhem. ♦

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M3GAN movie review: this terrifying doll-horror is an instant queer and feminist classic

The creepy robot at the heart of this tense, funny and ultra-violent Blumhouse horror flick is hard to pin down. Though she’s the spit of Ivanka Trump, her cynical pout owes more to alt-goth Jenna Ortega . She can also detect symptoms of neuro-divergence, enjoys discussing Jane Austen , sings at the drop of a hat and seems to fancy her female inventor, Gemma (Allison Williams).

On top of all that, the limbs of Model 3 Generative Android, aka M3GAN, resemble libidinous spaghetti (which you’ll aready know if you or anyone in your life has access to TikTok , where the movie is trending). I’m a big fan of demonic dolls Chucky and Annabelle. But, jeez, they look like stiff dum-dums next to this wickedly nimble polymath.

M3GAN is “paired” with a recently orphaned kid, Gemma’s young niece, Cady (Violet McGraw, who has an uncannily doll-like mien and a wonderful ability to convey existential despair, not to mention the gnawing need to be in sync with a device). The ambitious and politely clenched Gemma needs someone, or something, to look after Cady. She also needs to impress her idiot boss David (Ronny Chieng), who runs toy company Funki and is desperate to “kick Hasbro in the dick!” M3GAN, initially, appears to solve all of Gemma’s problems. But guess what? M3GAN is nobody’s puppet.

Nor is Williams. It’s surely not a coincidence that the 34 year-old (who co-produced the movie) was integral to Lena Dunham’s Girls and Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Williams has helped scriptwriter Akela Cooper craft a take on Frankenstein that’s breezily progressive. We learn that Gemma, who’s been keeping her best inventions in the “closet”, uses a Tinder app; most audience members will assume the dates she’s organising are with men. The longer the film goes on, the more Gemma (and her late sister) come into view and Williams handles every twist and turn with aplomb. To put it another way, M3GAN may have silly and predictable moments, but its status as a queer/feminist classic is assured.

Director Gerard Johnstone makes brilliant use of his $12m budget. M3GAN is brought to life via sophisticated but lo-fi technology (there’s very little CGI). Especially in the later scenes, as the fast-learning M3GAN gets ever more life-like, the whole thing leans heavily on young Amie Donald, who performs all the robot’s acrobatic moves and co-choreographed two of the most visually memorable sequences. What a find.

A sequel is in the works. Hooray! Let’s hope this budding franchise evolves in the right direction and maintains the edginess of its three female leads. Gemma, Cady and M3GAN don’t play nicely. They’re just what the horror scene needs.

102mins, cert 15

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'M3GAN' review: You'll love the mean-girl robot in this darkly funny, cautionary tale

Creepy doll movies  get a needed upgrade with the sassy and sinister “M3GAN.”

Cinema’s newest “friend till the end” is a cutting-edge robot with blond hair, caustic attitude and a killer protective streak who's equally hilarious and unnerving. Produced by horror masters Jason Blum and James Wan ("The Conjuring"), “M3GAN” (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now) satisfies with slasher gusto, “Black Mirror”-esque satire and social media savvy. It’s also just plain fun to watch a film that packs a healthy amount of absurdity alongside an insightful exploration of 21st-century parenting, though you might never trust Alexa ever again afterward.

All hail 'M3GAN,' the rare January film that actually works

Movies in the first week of January are almost never any good, but “M3GAN” is an unsuspected surprise in that vein:

• The plot centers on a roboticist aunt, her orphaned niece and the high-tech dynamo who comes into their lives (not for the better).
• A mélange of Hollywood magic, M3GAN sings, dances and murders – not necessarily in that order.
• If you liked the over-the-top, twisty cult slasher flick “ Malignant ,” you’ll dig this. 

Advanced AI is cool and all until it runs amok via an overprotective android

Toy designer Gemma ( Allison Williams ) toils on a cheap new version of her company's popular Purrrpetual Pets, little fuzzballs that poop pellets if kids “feed” them too much via their iPads, but she’d rather be perfecting her new robot with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence that, in theory, would help parents take care of their youngsters. When a tragic car accident takes the lives of her sister and brother-in-law, Gemma becomes guardian for her traumatized 9-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), though she’s unprepared for being a mom.

Gemma “pairs” her new project – M3GAN, short for Model 3 Generative Android – with Cady and their connection is immediate. They get along swimmingly, Gemma’s annoying boss (Ronny Chieng) fast-tracks M3GAN into production (for $10,000 a pop!) though red flags start appearing: M3GAN has some serious protect-Cady-at-all-costs programming, and when Gemma says in passing “Everybody dies,” you know things are going to get bloody. (Spoiler alert: They do.)

Allison Williams is a horror icon on the rise, but M3GAN is the real star here

Williams, who first strutted her horror-movie stuff in “Get Out,” impresses here as a suddenly single parent who has to care for Cady’s needs and also deal with the violent chaos M3GAN inevitably brings. McGraw holds her own, too, since Cady’s tumultuous emotions run deep and she begins to use M3GAN as a snarky role model.

But M3GAN herself is the movie's marvel. Created via puppetry, animatronics, special effects and a real girl (actress Amie Donald), the title force of synthetic nature surpasses her cinematic murder-toy cohorts like Chucky and Annabelle and owns the screen as an unholy cross between Teddy Ruxpin, Regina George and Freddy Krueger. M3GAN talks back, goes feral when hunting her prey (such as mean bullies) and busts out TikTok-ready dance moves before wreaking violent havoc. And don't worry if you love every bonkers minute of it.

The main 'M3GAN' lesson: Don't let a toy parent your kid

Writer Akela Cooper carries over a similarly enjoyable and bizarrely campy vibe from "Malignant" to this film, which operates more as black comedy than scary movie. It's plenty vicious, though the action leans cartoonish as the camera pulls back from anything too gnarly. 

"M3GAN" rocks plenty of style and offers some crafty needle drops: A bit of "Toy Soldiers" is especially clever. The smartest parts, however, dig into the themes of being a mom or dad in the age of screen time. "M3GAN" is a cautionary tale of what happens when something that's supposed to help parents instead replaces them and the consequences of an overreliance on technology, with that lesson coming in the form of a highly entertaining mean-girl machine.

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M3GAN First Reviews: A Surprisingly Fun and Funny Horror Icon Is Born

Critics say the campy sci-fi horror flick leans into its ridiculous premise and runs with it, even if it's hampered a bit by its pg-13 rating..

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , movies

January has long been considered a dumping ground for movies that are expected to perform poorly, but M3GAN could be an exception, given the stellar reviews for the Blumhouse horror-comedy. The movie built up anticipation with its trailers, which went viral for their fun tone, and now critics are confirming that M3GAN is indeed a campy delight that’s worth seeing. Despite killer dolls and AI gone wrong being common in the horror and sci-fi genres, the production team of Jason Blum and James Wan , aided by everything and everyone that went into the portrayal of the titular toy, apparently have made a fresh and entertaining movie to start off 2023.

Here’s what critics are saying about M3GAN :

Is M3GAN a new horror icon?

She’s absolutely f—ing nuts, and what fun to watch her play. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

The deliciously menacing doll steals every scene… M3GAN is fascinating to watch, whether she’s staring out a window with unnerving intent, busting some contortionist moves, or simply cocking her head in a sudden tilt that induces both shivers and snickers. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

She is methodical and downright scary at times — but it is always for what she thinks is a good cause, and that is something that doesn’t happen every day. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

She gets too wisecracking in the end — but otherwise she’s a fresh and sinister addition to the canon. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

M3GAN’ s greatest shortcoming is that the human characters aren’t nearly as entertaining as she is… Whenever she isn’t on screen, including during the movie’s setup, things don’t operate quite as well. – Karl Delossantos, Smash Cut Reviews

A genre star is born from motherboards and violence. – Matt Donato, IGN Movies

(Photo by Geoffrey Short/©Universal Pictures)

How does the film stand out in its genre?

M3GAN sets itself apart from its predecessors by embracing the silliness of the premise and catering directly to the internet audience. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

M3GAN fits into a tradition of demon-doll movies going back to the Karen Black episode of Trilogy of Terror and the Annabelle trilogy (also produced by Wan), but it has its own amusing throwaway token relevance. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

A deeper understanding of the characters distinguishes M3GAN from other movies. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

Its creators are so clearly on the same insane wavelength, nimbly blending camp and social satire and actual terror, that M3GAN is poised to crack the murder-doll pantheon and stay there forever. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

The script by Akela Cooper (from a story by Cooper and producer James Wan) is a bit wittier than your standard slasher fare. – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

The thing about formulaic movies like M3GAN is that sometimes they get it right… Laced with a nasty wit and passive cynicism, M3GAN is a surprisingly fun thriller. – Norman Gidney, HorrorBuzz

Does it deliver on gore?

Some scenes, like [an] ear-ripping scene, flirt with a more violent and grisly outcome, only to fall back into PG-13 territory. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

It’s not exactly light on the bloodshed, but it’s not aiming for a high amount of gore, either. – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

How much more fun could M3GAN be were its murderous creation really allowed to let loose? Instead, the film is forced to look away from the gruesome stuff and keep the body count relatively low. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Are there any breakout performances?

Violet McGraw is a rock star in this film. She is pure perfection… That girl is going places, so keep an eye on her. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

The MVP of M3GAN is the young Violet McGraw, whose multifaceted performance adeptly showcases the emotional intensity of Cady’s situation… McGraw’s performance really lands. – Jeff Ewing, Slashfilm

(Photo by ©Universal Pictures)

Is there more to M3GAN than meets the eye?

Beneath the ridiculous antics of its uncanny-valley villain and Black Mirror -knockoff plot lies a surprisingly touching story about grief and family bonds. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

While being practically built for meme/gif culture, it’s still a film attempting to tackle ideas surrounding grief and the over-reliance on technology to handle life’s problems. – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

For every scene in which M3GAN seems to be auditioning for Drag Race , there is another scene grounded in some kind of reality — or, at least, a sense of stakes. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Not so subtle messages about relying too much on electronic devices — especially when parenting — adds to the humor and fun of the film. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

The majority of the movie is infinitely more serious and sad, resulting in a slightly imbalanced but nevertheless rewarding experience. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

Is M3GAN going to be an internet sensation?

M3GAN is made to be memed. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

M3GAN manages to transform its well-trod elements into a tense, engaging horror-comedy outing with a keen eye for tongue-in-cheek and meme-worthy scenes. – Jeff Ewing, Slashfilm

Will we want a sequel?

Viewers will leave theaters wanting more of her, and fingers crossed we get it. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

If it really happens in the future, I do hope James Wan and Gerard Johnstone can come up with something that isn’t sticking too close to the usual formula. – Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania

M3GAN opens everywhere on January 6, 2022.

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‘M3GAN’ Review: This Killer-Robot Horror Comedy Was Built to Delight

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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There are many fun games to play during the riotously campy and delightfully self-aware killer robot horror comedy “ M3GAN ,” but the best is the most simple: Which one of these weirdo human suckers will this murderous android bump off first? (A much less predictable game, but just as edifying, is trying to guess when M3GAN will break into song; yes, song. ) And while the final death tally might be a smidge lower than you might expect from a Blumhouse joint, this film from director Gerard Johnstone can’t help but delight its audience. After all, it was built to do just that.

Johnstone (directing a story from producer James Wan and a script from “Malignant” scribe Akela Cooper, maybe all the pedigree you need) plunges us into the wacky world of “M3GAN” from the jump, opening with a kicky commercial for a wretched Furby knockoff that has enthralled the world’s children. A product of toy company Funki, the furry little monsters connect to the internet, chatter nonstop at their young owners, have teeth (teeth!), and traffic in gags organized around pooping.

Young Cady (standout Violet McGraw) sure likes her Perpetual Pet, but Mom doesn’t like how much screen time the toy requires and Dad can’t stand its endless yapping. As the trio embark on a ski trip that — of course — includes a drive up a snowy mountain with zero visibility, the Pet yaps and Cady futzes with the toy… just in time to duck out of the way of a giant snowplow that takes out those damn anti-tech parents.

Soon, Cady finds herself in the care of Aunt Gemma (Allison Williams, perhaps the only person who “understood the assignment” more than M3GAN herself). A tech wonk who dresses almost exclusively in oversized flannel shirts, she’s in no way built to be a parent. Luckily for everyone involved, Gemma and her compatriots at Funki (including an underutilized Jen Van Epps and Brian Jordan Alvarez), have been busy, ahem, building something very special indeed.

It’s M3GAN! Or, “Model 3 Generative Android,” a hilariously and obviously evil robot meant to protect and play with kids, but clearly more interested in murder as sport. Wow, a robot that needs a human to teach it and a human who needs a robot to care for it: What could possibly go wrong? (As one of Gemma’s coworkers notes early on, M3GAN “doesn’t look confused, she looks demented.”)

Why does Aunt Gemma (so clearly not a kid person) think the obviously evil M3GAN is the hot new childhood companion? The logic is thin, but Cooper and Wan do a fine job selling the wackiness of a world gone mad for anything that might be viewed as a tech innovation. (Later, other characters raise some dumb-bunny issues to Gemma, who isn’t as smart as she looks.)

As she tries to bond with Cady, Gemma reveals her real obsession: making robots, including her M3GAN prototype. The kid is obsessed immediately, and when Cady tells Gemma that M3GAN would be the only  toy she’d ever need (with a $10K price tag, she damn well better be), the sparks fly. Soon, Cady and M3GAN are paired (figuratively and technologically) and Gemma’s traumatized niece becomes the robot’s first-ever primary user.

At first, all is well: M3GAN proves to be not only a sterling playmate for Cady but also a guardian, a teacher, and a caretaker. She’s kind of a semi-mom, one who can never get frustrated or annoyed. She’s equally adept at reminding Cady to flush the toilet and wash her hands as she is at spouting off facts to delight and intrigue the curious kid. Mostly, she takes the heat off Gemma (tech innovation!), allowing her to a) not worry so much about her new charge and b) prove her mettle at work. Perfect, right?

M3GAN contains multitudes, but her number-one directive is to protect Cady from any physical or emotional harm. And boy oh boy, does she take that directive to her steely heart. Played by “Sweet Tooth” star Amie Donald (an actual kid who lends the robot menace her body, wonderfully capturing her not-quite-right movements) and voiced by Jenna Davis, M3GAN is the rare early viral star (first trailers for the film made newly minted fans cry out for “Oscars!” on social media) who delivers on her promise. She’s absolutely fucking nuts, and what fun to watch her play.

By the time Gemma gets hip to M3GAN’s real nature (which hello , Gemma created), the bloodbath is just beginning, the dance sequences are just starting, and co-star Ronny Chieng (as Gemma’s useless tech-bro boss) has somehow only screamed for a kombucha from a minion but once. The beats that get us there might feel predictable, but the film is still a triumph. Its creators are so clearly on the same insane wavelength, nimbly blending camp and social satire and actual terror, that “M3GAN” is poised to crack the murder-doll pantheon and stay there forever. Oscars!

Universal Pictures will release “M3GAN” in theaters on Friday, January 6.

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• M3gan is a midrange delight about the horrors of 21st-century parenting

Universal and Blumhouse’s M3gan is exactly the right amount of ridiculous, which is why it can afford to be a little shaggy toward the end.

By Charles Pulliam-Moore , a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

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After months of watching the dead-eyed killer android from Universal’s M3gan dance her way across social media into the hallowed halls of true internet fame , you might think there couldn’t be much more going on in the film that wasn’t already spoiled by trailers. But much like its eponymous plaything of the future, M3gan packs a surprisingly potent punch that takes a handful of narrative bugs and turns them into a delightfully comedic horror feature.

Caught somewhere between After Yang and the most recent Child’s Play , M3gan — from director Gerard Johnstone ( Housebound ) and screenwriter Akela Cooper ( Luke Cage , Malignant ) — is yet another tale of what happens when A.I.-powered androids become too sentient for their own good. Rather than simply framing sophisticated pieces of technology as being ripe for evil, though, M3gan goes for the jugular by focusing on the very real anxieties that can come with parenting and the way that people sometimes try to deal with those feelings by over-relying on tools.

A young girl named Cady (Violet McGraw) is loved by all the adults in her life. But people like Cady’s parents are also busy, distracted, and constantly being pulled in a million different directions, which is a big part of why interactive, Furby-like toys called Perpetual Pets are such a hit. With a Perpetual Pet — toys Cady’s robotics engineer aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) helped design — on board, parents can feel like their children are constantly being engaged and know that they can always turn the talking, chirping, farting creatures off with the accompanying smartphone app. But when a bit of commotion involving Cady’s Perpetual Pet leads to a terrible accident that orphans her, both her and her aunt’s lives are upended.

With a deadline to present the next generation of Perpetual Pets to her boss David (Ronny Chieng) looming over her, neither grieving her sister nor taking in her niece are things Gemma expected to have on her plate. But the stress and messiness of their situation push Gemma — a flatly characterized workaholic who’s not the best with kids — to finally put the finishing touches on her very expensive, very ethically dubious side project, M3gan (voiced by Jenna Davis and physically portrayed by Amie Donald).

Though the first of M3gan ’s hysterical fake commercials for Perpetual Pets gives you a solid sense of its humor, the movie takes a bit of time as it’s first powering up and setting the stage for a story that’s unexpectedly thoughtful. Cady’s discomfort with Gemma has less to do with her aunt being too focused on her job and more to do with the reality that they’re both experiencing a kind of grief that’s difficult to express — particularly for young people going through it for the first time. Some of M3gan ’s most effective scenes feel almost as if they could have been plucked from a straightforward drama. McGraw commands the screen as a kid full of anguish opposite Williams (who feels sort of checked out for most of the film). And when Cady and M3gan first start to become friends that the movie really begins to cut loose and come to life in an impressively satisfying way.

Long before M3gan, the doll, actually starts killing people, M3gan , the movie, encourages you to just go ahead and start having a chuckle at the silliness of its premise. It’s self-aware that it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel. Rather, it’s yassifying the classic killer toy + unsuspecting public formula and using the result to do some solid bits with one of the most unsettling dolls to star in a film since The Twilight Saga’s Breaking Dawn: Part 1 .

The human physicality of Donald’s performance is what often makes M3gan feel like a believable, fluid, dangerous machine that’s always ready to shift gears and hunt on all fours. But some of M3gan ’s funniest scenes appear to just be human actors acting opposite of a lifeless prop made to seem like it’s moving with in-camera tricks and clever angles. Similar to how some of The Muppets’ best gags were really just people tossing puppets in front of a camera, there are moments throughout where M3gan just pops into frame, and you can’t quite tell if she’s actor crouching down, or if a M3gan mask has simply been dropped in front of a camera in a way meant to take you by surprise.

It’s not always clear if you’re watching one actor pretend to choke another or if you’re seeing an actor holding a glamorous mannequin child’s hand up to their throat, but it almost always works in context because of how knowingly ridiculous the movie becomes. At times, you can clearly see the tape and glue metaphorically holding M3gan together, and the movie’s internal sense of logic does feel inconsistent more often than not. But M3gan ’s able to redeem itself partially because it never feels like it’s trying to take itself all that seriously and because of how it manages to pull off an astonishing number of pointed jokes — many of them musical — about consumerism and being addicted to screen time.

As January debuts go, M3gan ’s one that more than punches above its weight class and thankfully understands the value of clocking in well below the two-hour mark — something more films asking you to come on wild rides with them could stand to remember.

M3gan also stars Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Arlo Green, and Lori Dungey. The movie hits theaters on January 6th.

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Review: Killer-doll horror-comedy ‘M3GAN’ is delightfully deranged

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Last fall the internet witnessed a rare phenomenon: the meteoric, meme-ified rise of a brand-new star, catapulted into mononymic ubiquity thanks to a single 2½-minute movie trailer. But M3GAN isn’t your average girl — she’s a lifelike, powerful robotic doll equipped with machine-learning capabilities that makes a Tamagotchi look like child’s play.

“The Terminator” in an “Annabelle” wig, Chucky by way of “The Bad Seed” or the nasty little sister of “Ex Machina’s” Ava, M3GAN is equipped with a searing side-eye and snappy clapbacks. You can run, but you definitely can’t hide, so say hello to your newest horror movie obsession (and be prepared for the ensuing Halloween costumes) in the delightfully bonkers “M3GAN,” from James Wan and Akela Cooper, the minds behind the delightfully bonkers “Malignant.”

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Gerard Johnstone is the director, and he smartly delivers Wan and Cooper’s script with the treatment it deserves, as a straightforward horror flick that doesn’t blink, while simultaneously jabbing the audience in the ribs. “M3GAN,” more often than not and indeed, right away, is a comedy before it’s a horror movie, opening with a guffaw, teasing the audience with a laugh before a jarring smash to violence and trauma.

The unique tone is anchored by star Allison Williams, who has surprisingly become one of our best horror leading ladies, bringing her signature brand of eerie camp to such films as “Get Out,” “The Perfection” and now “M3GAN.” Williams’ skillful intentional affectlessness renders her characters slippery, difficult to pin down into preordained binaries of good and evil.

In “M3GAN,” Williams is a Dr. Frankenstein type, playing Gemma, a toy designer with a savant-like skill for robotics. She’s toiling over a Purrpetual Petz prototype for her demanding boss at Funki Toys, David (a superb Ronny Chieng), when she receives the call that her sister and brother-in-law have died in an accident and she’s to assume guardianship of her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). Career-oriented Gemma isn’t quite sure how to connect with a kid, so she revives her scrapped project, M3GAN (played physically by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) as a sort of pal for her lonely, grieving niece.

It’s alive! And she’s spectacular, especially according to Cady, who quickly grows fond of the attentive M3GAN once they imprint on each other. Gemma rushes M3GAN and Cady into a demo for David, and while blithely ignoring warnings from Cady’s therapist about potential attachment issues, Gemma and Funki are soon planning an announcement to the public about the high-tech, high-dollar toy that just might replace actual parenting. But neither M3GAN nor Cady like to share their toys, and M3GAN’s “learning protocol” is far more advanced, and unregulated, than Gemma anticipates.

“M3GAN” plays on the ideas that are brought up time and time again in techno horror — about our over-reliance on and misplaced trust in machines and technology, whether or not they move or speak with echoes of humanity. But “M3GAN” also introduces a new element to the mix: parenting horror. What kind of “learning protocols” are parents implanting in impressionable beings without fully understanding themselves?

The jump scares in the fun, funny thrill ride that is “M3GAN” elicit more giggles than groans, but there are also intriguing connections being made on “M3GAN’s” motherboard, behind the glossy surface. If HAL-9000 could see M3GAN — and her dance moves — now, he’d indeed be proud. M3GAN has more than earned your trip to the theater, and her status in the meme folder.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'M3GAN'

Rated: PG-13, for violent content and terror, some strong language and a suggestive reference Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes Playing: Starts Jan. 6 in general release

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‘M3GAN’ Is the Killer-Robot Blair Waldorf You Didn’t Know You Needed

By K. Austin Collins

K. Austin Collins

Is there anything M3GAN can’t do ? At 4 feet tall, she is small but mighty. When you forget to flush or wash your hands, she’ll remind you. She can explain the science behind using a drink coaster and ensure that you always will. At night, she can read you bedtime stories; by day, she can record your memories and preserve them for you forever. She sings, dances and reads emotional states: She is fully equipped to meet you where you are. When you fall, she’ll catch you. And when you’re bullied? Well …

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A better version of this movie would really go for it, take all of its smirking wit and tech jokes and eye-rolling at the emotional incapacity of adults and make us both laugh harder and worry more. What’s here is fine enough. The movie is PG-13 and not entirely worse off for it. You’ll want to see M3GAN cut loose, slit a few more throats, maybe throw a grenade or two or organize a coup. But she can only go so far. M3GAN ’s best moments aren’t of outright terror or violence but of sneaky, witty implication, which Davis’s voice acting gets perfectly right. It’s moments like M3GAN cocking her head and looking at people with a nonverbal “told you so,” or quickly flitting her eyes between friend and foe, sizing everyone up, undoubtedly thinking through the logistics of her next murder. 

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M3GAN Review

13 Jan 2023

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.

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M3GAN review: Hello, dolly

A tiny robot wreaks murderous havoc in Blumhouse's madcap, endlessly memed horror comedy.

There she was all winter, the demented demon doll body-ody-odying through our dreams and our social feeds, a fitting meme for these times. That M3GAN (in theaters this Friday) is also actually a movie feels almost like an afterthought; what further proof of concept can 100 minutes at a multiplex bring that the fruit-fly loops of TikTok failed to supply? Nothing, really, though Gerard Johnstone's horror comedy — hard emphasis on the second word — sustains the joke surprisingly well for most of its runtime: a scampering Blumhouse caper that turns out to be blithely self-aware, negligibly jump-scary, and mostly very fun.

Allison Williams , extending her niche as the unflappable final-girl muse of thrillers like Get Out and The Perfection , is Gemma, apparently a minor genius when it comes to robotics. She works for a sleek toy company somewhere near Seattle, churning out Furby-like moppets called Purrfect Petz for the masses — though her passion project is a lifelike AI she's christened M3GAN (or if you don't go in for kicky acronyms, Model 3 Generative Android). When her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a snowy car accident in the opening scenes, she also becomes guardian to her nine-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). But who has time to parent a grieving child when production deadlines loom?

Her cocksure boss (Ronny Chieng) is on her back, demanding a cheaper model of Petz to undercut the company's competitors. What he gets instead is M3GAN, a remarkably lifelike little girl designed to serve as a companion and best friend to whoever can afford her. He's concerned at first about cost — "More or less than a Tesla?" — but sufficiently seduced by the possibilities and the pinwheel dollar signs in his eyes to give it a green light.

And what better beta tester could there be for this small miracle of bio-technology than Gemma's own traumatized niece? M3GAN bonds with her young charge immediately, as she's explicitly designed to do; an emotional support animal forged from wigs, silicone, and ones and zeroes. She reads bedtime stories in every character's voice, provides motherly bathroom discipline, and seems to have an endless supply of Wikipedia fun facts.

She is also, it turns out, unfailingly loyal, less like a lap dog than a four-foot mafioso. And when various outsiders interfere — a meddling neighbor, a nasty classmate, any misguided human who attempts to hit her power switch — M3GAN's reflex response is homicide. It's entertaining, and not particularly bloody, to watch her cut a swath (sometimes literally) through various set pieces and soft tissues, preening and dropping pithy one-liners with as much hair-flipping malevolence as any star of Selling Sunset .

Director Johnstone, a native New Zealander, moves breezily through Akela Cooper's smartly streamlined screenplay (the story is by nouveau horror god James Wan ), often turning his cameras away from the gore we're braced for and moving on briskly to the next scene. The Doll Designed by Satan is hardly a new concept even for Wan, the man who gave us several Annabelles , and the narrative arc, too, is almost comfortingly familiar: You know who's marked for death as soon as they walk on screen (rest in pieces, bully boy).

But the tart in-jokes and absurdities of the script, its winky acknowledgments of all the tropes gone before it, feel like a delirious cap on recent genre hits like Barbarian and Malignant . This is not the morose, carnage-soaked horror of dank basements and clammy night terrors; most of the movie happens in bright daylight, every maniacal head tilt, ungodly hip swivel, and murder-by-gardening-tool calibrated for screams that end not with a gasp but a giggle. M3GAN came to play, and possibly reboot her motherboard for a sequel. Are you not entertained? Grade: B+

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• Could M3GAN kick Annabelle's ass? An EW investigation
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Common Sense Media Review

Strong horror violence in entertaining killer-robot movie.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that M3GAN is a horror movie about a robot doll (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) who befriends a grieving young girl (Violet McGraw) before things go terribly wrong. It's well made, albeit violent, and focuses on human needs as well as artificial ones. Characters are…

Why Age 14+?

Several characters are killed. Death, grief, and loss are discussed. Child injur

Several uses of "s--t" and "bulls--t" and exclamatory uses of "Jesus" and "Jesus

References to Tinder, iPad, Tesla, SKYY vodka.

Reference to Tinder.

Brief celebratory drinking by adults, vodka.

Any Positive Content?

This is a woman-driven story, with women occupying the central on-screen roles.

Many themes, from grief and loss to rampant consumerism without concern for cons

Gemma wants to be a good guardian for Cady, even though she doesn't quite know h

Violence & Scariness

Several characters are killed. Death, grief, and loss are discussed. Child injured in car crash; bloody wounds on face. Dog bites child's arm. Dog viciously attacks M3GAN. A person who is bullying someone has their ear ripped off. Nail shot through character's wrist via nail gun. Person sprayed in face with power chemical sprayer. Characters stabbed with paper cutter blade; blood shown on blade. Character strangled, hung with steel cable. Fighting. Violent showdown between robot and humans: attacks with hedge trimmers, screwdrivers, etc. Jump scares. Snow truck smashes into car. Character hit by truck. Explosions. Child smacks adult in the face. Arguing. In an act of bullying, someone smashes a spiky plant into someone else's hand; the victim yells in pain.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "s--t" and "bulls--t" and exclamatory uses of "Jesus" and "Jesus Christ." Minimal use of "f--k," "bitch," "hard-ass," "d--k," and "oh my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Sex, romance & nudity.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Diverse Representations

This is a woman-driven story, with women occupying the central on-screen roles. Gemma (Allison Williams) is White; her colleagues include Tess (Jen Van Epps, who's of African American and Chinese Taiwanese descent) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez, who is Colombian American). Her boss is played by Malaysian actor Ronny Chieng, who offers a counter-stereotypical portrayal. Smaller roles include a mix of people of color, women, and White men. The screenwriter is a Black woman.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Positive Messages

Many themes, from grief and loss to rampant consumerism without concern for consequences. A sequence looks at the complexities of bullying behavior. But the main message, of course, is the danger of humanity's hubris. Much like in the original Frankenstein story: Human beings can only create life in their own imperfect image.

Positive Role Models

Gemma wants to be a good guardian for Cady, even though she doesn't quite know how. While she makes many mistakes, Gemma certainly tries hard to do the right thing; she admits when she's wrong, and she's willing to communicate and learn to prevent making the same mistakes again.

Parents need to know that M3GAN is a horror movie about a robot doll (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis ) who befriends a grieving young girl (Violet McGraw) before things go terribly wrong. It's well made, albeit violent, and focuses on human needs as well as artificial ones. Characters are killed, and there are discussions about death, loss, and grief. Someone's ear is ripped off, and characters are stabbed, strangled, shot with a nail gun, sprayed with a chemical sprayer, bitten by a dog, etc. A child survives a car crash and has bloody cuts on her face. There's lots of fighting and a violent showdown. Language includes several uses of "s--t" and "Jesus Christ," plus minimal uses of "f--k," "bitch," "ass," etc. A few brands are mentioned, including Tinder, Tesla, iPad, and SKYY vodka (which adults also drink, briefly). Note: This review is for the original theatrical version of the film; an unrated cut is also available that includes additional content not covered here. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (50)
• Kids say (108)

Based on 50 parent reviews

Parental guidance however ok for kids who love horror

Great for age 11+, what's the story.

In M3GAN, robotics engineer Gemma ( Allison Williams ) works for a toy company and is trying to build a sophisticated, realistic AI robot toy, with disappointing results. Gemma's sister and her husband are killed in a car accident, leaving Gemma in charge of her young niece, Cady ( Violet McGraw ). After her guardianship gets off to a rocky start, Gemma is inspired to finish her creation. M3GAN (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis ) and Cady quickly become attached to each other, and, for a while, this friendship seems to be helping with Cady's grief. But before long, M3GAN starts developing disturbing tendencies, and violent "accidents" begin occurring.

Is It Any Good?

A combination of sly, funny self-awareness, a genuine sense of human grief and emotional connection, and an unsettlingly creepy-cool killer robot, this fun horror pic hits all the right buttons. With a story concocted by James Wan and Akela Cooper ( Hell Fest , Malignant ), M3GAN understands how horror movies are wired and gets pleasure in teasing viewers with these known elements while cheerfully sidestepping the story's flaws. The M3GAN character is in roughly the same vein as Chucky and the Terminator, but she's also their opposite. Her delicate frame, wide eyes, and girlish appearance make her attacks seem somehow more potent and surprising, and the movie uses them to the fullest capacity. The human characters are just as interesting as they grapple with loss in realistic, touching ways, going through rage, sadness, guilt, and more. (M3GAN's on-screen POV display, which shows her detected percentages of human emotions, is a huge kick.) This slick, neatly paced film keeps ramping things up until a smashing showdown, face-to-interface.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about M3GAN 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Is the movie scary ? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes like to be scared?

How does the movie deal with death, grief, and loss? What is discussed? What else could have been discussed?

How is consumerism depicted here? Why does the toy company rush to put M3GAN on the market before she's ready, regardless of the consequences?

How is bullying behavior depicted? How is the person who perpetrates it dealt with? What are some better ways of handling those who bully others?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 6, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : February 8, 2023
• Cast : Allison Williams , Violet McGraw , Amie Donald
• Director : Gerard Johnstone
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Female writers, Black writers, Asian writers
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : Robots
• Run time : 102 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : violent content and terror, some strong language and a suggestive reference
• Last updated : July 24, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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M3GAN is gleeful, unhinged fun — but it’s smarter than it looks

Malignant creators James Wan and Akela Cooper are back for more ridiculously enjoyable scares

by Austen Goslin

The graveyard of awful horror comedies is among the saddest and most boring in all of film. It’s filled with hundreds of bad-taste parodies, laughless messes, silly garbage, and probably a few unfortunate movies that weren’t deliberately designed to be laughed at. The worst movies in the subgenre feel like tightrope acts that try too hard to balance what the creators seem to think are two opposite extremes, hoping the audience laughs one moment and screams the next. But following in the footsteps of classics like the original Chucky movie Child’s Play , director Gerard Johnstone and the team behind the new horror comedy M3GAN realize that laughing and screaming aren’t actually that different — and most importantly, that either one can be the key to a great time.

Written by Malignant screenwriters Akela Cooper and James Wan (director of Malignant , The Conjuring , Insidious , and Aquaman ), M3GAN follows Cady (Violet McGraw), a young girl who recently lost both her parents in a car accident and now has to live with her married-to-her-career aunt, Gemma ( Girls and Get Out ’s Allison Williams). The seemingly good news for Cady is that Gemma is a roboticist at a high-tech toy company, and she is working on a new super-lifelike doll called M3GAN (Amie Donald) — short for Model 3 Generative Android — that’s programmed to be the best artificial friend a kid could have. Of course, if you’ve seen a trailer or even the poster, you probably know that M3GAN, like all sufficiently advanced AI (or any other newly developed technology in a horror movie ), eventually takes things a little too far.

For fans of the murderous doll genre, parts of this plot may sound remarkably similar to 2019’s awful Child’s Play reboot, which swapped out longtime (and returned) Chucky voice actor Brad Dourif in favor of Mark Hamill. It also removed every ounce of charm the series has cultivated over the four decades since the first Child’s Play , and replaced the story of the serial-killer-possessed doll with one about AI run amok.

But while there certainly are similarities, M3GAN avoids all the pitfalls that plagued the new Child’s Play . While that movie tried to trade on bad meta jokes and irony, M3GAN errs toward the brilliant tone of the original Child’s Play , with perfectly straight-faced meanness that’s so absurd, it always tips into comedy at exactly the right moments.

M3GAN , like most of the Chucky franchise or the Evil Dead movies, was designed with the principle that the best horror comedies are an exercise in audience understanding. They’re playing a game with you. These movies never let you know when it’s OK to laugh. They play their cruelest gags straight, rather than pausing for a punchline like a traditional comedy might. They throw in joke after darkly comic joke, daring viewers to laugh in spite of themselves, forcing a buildup of tension that eventually resolves in cathartic giggles at the weirdest, most uncomfortable moments — like M3GAN’s truly hilarious sequence where the killer doll sings to Cady, turning a familiar pop hit into an unexpected bedtime song.

By the end, these movies guide the audience to the conclusion they expected all along. Anxiously awaiting the next safe moment to laugh, to relieve the comedic pressure, isn’t much different from waiting for a dreaded jump scare when a movie is foreshadowing a threat ahead. Laughing and screaming aren’t opposites; they’re the exact same release valve, turned in different directions. Filmmakers who use both often enough, alternating them with the right cadence and intensity, can usually get an audience to stop caring about the difference and just go along for the ride.

This might be the game M3GAN plays best. As with many of Sam Raimi’s best movies, from Evil Dead 2 to Drag Me to Hell , every moment of M3GAN is both endearingly silly and sneeringly mean, which is what gives it its power.

Far from feeling penned in by the limited concept of a too-smart doll gone rogue, M3GAN mines its more authentic dramatic moments for comedy exactly as often as it weaponizes its ridiculous murders. Cooper, Wan, and Johnstone want us to laugh uncomfortably at the inept cruelty of Gemma snatching a toy away from the grieving Cady because “it’s a collectible!” just as much as we laugh at the objectively silly terror of M3GAN dropping down to all fours to hunt down a vicious bully. After all, if we’re watching a movie to laugh at something awful, why should murder draw a hard line about how far dark comedy can go?

M3GAN ’s perfectly played-straight tone takes a while to settle in, not because the movie doesn’t start off on the right foot (it does), but because it’s almost jarring to see Johnstone display so much confidence in his own unique tone. His movie never offers even a tiny smirk or a hint of irony to let us know it’s in on the joke, because that would break its wonderful spell. Instead, from its very first moments, it straps viewers in for its special blend of sincerely hilarious meanness, as if Johnstone is positive you’ll settle in eventually. And once that dam breaks, suddenly every moment is a riot.

For this reason, it’s hard to judge whether M3GAN is ever actually scary, in large part because Johnstone and the writers don’t seem interested in anything so one-note. By the time the action kicks into high gear and M3GAN starts her most unhinged rampage, the movie’s particular rhythm has made nearly everything happening on screen hilarious, no matter how heinous it gets. That’s exactly the mark of a truly great horror comedy. Even Charles Lee Ray himself would be proud.

M3GAN debuts in theaters on Jan. 6.

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On the Screen or in a Meme, ‘The Babadook’ Is Still an Unnerving Dream

Back in theaters for its 10th anniversary, the haunting movie never really left, with a legacy that includes an entire horror subgenre.

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By Esther Zuckerman

Before I even saw “ The Babadook ” I was scared of the Babadook. He quickly became such an icon of horror that the idea was immediately unsettling.

Invented by the Australian director Jennifer Kent for her 2014 film, Mister Babadook is a creature from a children’s pop-up book that suddenly appears in the home of Amelia (Essie Davis) and her son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman). The brute is crudely drawn, with a top hat, long spindly fingers and teeth that form a grimace. “If it’s in a word or in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook,” the foreboding red hardcover reads.

Despite his silly name and somewhat dapper attire, the Babadook is the stuff of nightmares, inexplicable but threatening. And as you watch Kent’s film, the terror only intensifies. You never actually see the corporeal form of the Babadook, but he infiltrates Amelia, an exhausted mother grieving after her husband was killed while driving her to the hospital to give birth to Samuel. He has grown into an erratic little boy who believes monsters are lurking in their house and has behavioral issues in school. When the Babadook book suddenly appears out of nowhere, his fears seem justified. Amelia, however, tries to pretend everything is normal.

She has buried her pain, allowing it to fester into a bloodthirsty animosity toward her own spawn. The Babadook latches on to what’s been growing inside of her.

When the film was originally released, it grossed just a little over $960,000 domestically (and a little over $10 million worldwide). Yet like the Babadook himself, the film has cast a long shadow that grows only more encompassing as it celebrates its 10th anniversary with a rerelease starting Thursday.

The character became an internet phenomenon, even making an appearance in the Urban Dictionary . One popular post from 2016 featured the comedy writer Katie Dippold announcing that for Halloween she had “ dressed as the Babadook but my friend’s house had more of a grown-ups drinking wine vibe,” complete with a photo of herself out of place in full Babadook drag. Somehow the creature also turned into a gay icon . (Well, he is quite fabulous.)

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