The description of the first-ever footage from the upcoming Blumhouse android thriller M3GAN is now available. The film, which was directed by Housebound director Gerard Johnstone from a script by Malignant screenwriter Akela Cooper, is a collaboration between the horror movie production companies Blumhouse Productions and James Wan's Atomic Monster Productions. It is being distributed by Universal, who frequently partners with Blumhouse on their theatrical projects, including Happy Death Day and its sequel, David Gordon Green's Halloween trilogy, and The Purge franchise. The film stars Amie Donald, Kimberley Crossman, Ronny Chieng, Violet McGraw, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Arlo Green, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Michael Saccente, and Girls star Allison Williams.
This is the second Blumhouse project for Williams, who previously played Daniel Kaluuya's sinister girlfriend in Jordan Peele's Get Out. However, she also flexed her horror muscles in the genre-bending madcap Netflix thriller The Perfection, in which she played an expert cellist who was forced to leave her prestigious music academy to take care of her mother during a severe illness. Both films required very different performances from the actress, and the challenge combined with her being allowed to show her range after starring in a comedy series for so long has most likely given the actress a taste for the genre. This new role will likely be yet another surprising stretch for her, though not many official details are known about her M3GAN character at the moment.
During Universal's presentation at the theatrical distributor convention CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Nevada, they shared the first glimpse of footage from M3GAN. Although the footage is not currently available online, Screen Rant was in attendance and can provide a description of what it contained. In the sequence they shared, a young girl loses her parents and moves in with her robot programmer aunt Gemma, played by Williams. Gemma brings her to work to show her the AI M3gan, which is designed to be a child's best friend. Although the robot is creepy, she protects the little girl and they begin to bond. The young girl finds her move improving, becoming the happiest that she has been since her parents passed away, but then M3gan gets possessive and starts attacking other kids as well as anyone who threatens to shut her down. She can run and jump faster and farther than a normal human being, and at one point attacks someone with a nail gun.
M3GAN is set to premiere in theaters on January 13, 2023. Although January and February used to be known as a dumping ground for films that studios had no confidence in, especially in the horror genre, Blumhouse has been changing that trend since 2017 with their February release of the Oscar-nominated Jordan Peele film Get Out. The New Year became their go-to slot for some of their most popular pictures including Insidious: The Last Key in 2018, the Unbreakable continuation Glass in 2019, and Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man in 2020, and they became so successful that the new Paramount franchise slasher Scream opened in that same time period as well.
Between this footage description and Blumhouse's growing slate of January scares, M3GAN is shaking up to be quite creepy. The initial footage is reminiscent of the 2008 film Orphan crossed with the early Anya Taylor-Joy AI project (and similarly titled) Morgan. It will also be a treat to see Williams return to the screen again as she has been quite selective with her roles since the conclusion of Girls. This genre mash-up will be certain to delight fans of Blumhouse's low-budget, high production value fright flicks.