The horror genre is kicking off 2023 with M3GAN, directed by Gerard Johnstone, and it all points to it being a great start as so far it has been getting positive reviews. The horror genre is still enjoying a great run on the big screen, and amidst reboots, sequels, and requels, there are original stories that are taking the audience by surprise. Among them is M3GAN, written by Akela Cooper and James Wan and produced by Wan and Jason Blum, and it introduces a new type of murderous doll.
M3GAN follows Gemma (Allison Williams), a brilliant roboticist working at a toy company who unexpectedly gains custody of her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), after her parents die in a car accident. Gemma uses artificial intelligence to develop M3GAN, a lifelike doll programmed to be Cady’s greatest companion and be Gemma’s ally while parenting, but when the doll starts to become self-aware and overprotective of Cady, she takes a murderous turn and starts killing everyone who stands in her way. M3GAN will be out in theaters on January 6, and so far, it’s getting positive reviews.
What M3GAN’s Positive Reviews Are Saying
At the time of writing, M3GAN holds a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes, giving it a (very) fresh certification. The critical consensus praises M3GAN’s blend of horror and comedy, as it manages to balance its comedic moments with its terrifying ones. The way Cooper and Wan crafted the story to be as far from cliché as possible – meaning being less about an orphan and more about the struggles of grief and the ones her aunt goes through in different areas of her life – while also being conscious of the absurdity of M3GAN’s concept and creation is being pointed out as one of the movie’s strengths, along with the visual effects that brought the AI doll to life. The performances of Allison Williams and Violet McGraw are also being praised, with the former playing an overwhelmed aunt to whom some might end up relating and the latter masterfully playing a child grieving her parents but also delighted by the arrival of her new friend and later conflicted over said friend’s actions.
M3GAN is not just comedy and horror in one, led by an AI doll that provides extreme loyalty and care for her assigned companion, but it also tackles darker and more serious issues, from the different stages of grief to the shadiness of capitalism, and that alone is worth the praise the movie is getting. Here’s what the positive reviews of M3GAN are saying.
“The eponymous character gets brought to life through impressive effects by Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse, Amie Donald’s uncanny physical performance, and Jenna Davis’s haunting voicework. She exudes menace through facial expressions and jerky movements that trigger that unsettling uncanny valley. This is M3GAN’s movie, and she more than earns it through an immensely talented team. She’s aided by a sympathetic turn from Williams, who successfully prevents Gemma from losing rooting interest despite fumbling hard with Cady. McGraw holds her own against her AI scene-stealer, no small feat considering the nuanced stages of grief she cycles.”
“M3GAN herself is a marvel. Created with a combination of puppetry, animatronics, VFX, and a human actor (Amie Donald, with a voice by Jenna Davis), it's hard to tell when she is real, when she is fake, and when she is a combination. The sound design of M3GAN certainly helps the illusion of the character. With virtually every step, M3GAN whirred and clicked, the sounds of gears moving. Not loud enough to be obnoxious, just noticeable, so that it's clear M3GAN is a robot. Jenna Davis brings an especially joyous vocalization to M3GAN, making her sound both lighthearted and somehow ominous.”
“Allison Williams (who made her mark in horror in Jordan Peele's Get Out) solidly grounds the human drama within this scary sci-fi premise of a killer doll. With an identity defined by her ambition and work, Gemma struggles when her grief-stricken niece needs her attention and the kid's failure to understand the difference between toys and collectibles. Her anxieties about parenthood versus selfhood are radiant, making the audience's skin crawl in recognition.”
“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.”
“The MVP of "M3GAN," however, is the young Violet McGraw, whose multifaceted performance adeptly showcases the emotional intensity of Cady's situation. The film smartly lets Cady actually go through grief and resentment, lash out in anger, and desperately reach for support. It takes these psychological issues seriously — a key part of the film is the question of the mental health impact of letting an emotionally vulnerable girl attach to an android — and McGraw's performance really lands.”
What Critics Don't Like About M3GAN
Of course, not everything about M3GAN is a hit, and even some aspects that are being praised by some are not the favorites of others. Among the weaknesses that critics are finding is that M3GAN lacks twists and shocking moments, which make it predictable as it’s quite obvious from the moment they are introduced which characters will become victims of the murderous doll. M3GAN also doesn’t have many graphic scenes, keeping the gore and kills for off-screen moments, which has been a disappointment to some especially when comparing this movie to Wan’s previous works, most recently Malignant. M3GAN’s PG-13 rating is pointed out as the responsible one for the lack of on-screen kills and blood, and some scenes seem to have been added just to keep that rating.
The combination of comedy and horror, while praised by many, is being criticized by others, who find that M3GAN relies too much on silly moments (such as the viral dance scene) that ultimately messed with the pace and tone of the story. In addition to that, the human characters are labeled as two-dimensional, making it hard to connect to them and thus care about what could happen to them at the hands of this evil doll. Here’s what the negative reviews of M3GAN are saying.
“The thing is, M3GAN sporadically seems to be winking at the audience, but also wants you to actually be invested in it. This isn’t a comprehensive enough work to have it both ways. Again, the audience seems to be doing the work for it, hooting and hollering at some moments meant to be played straight.”
"“M3GAN” stocks up on jump scares and keeps the violence PG-13, but fails to make us care about any of the humans in the path of M3GAN. Each character is a rote as an assembly-line toy."
Critics are divided on M3GAN’s quality as a horror movie mostly due to its comedy and horror combination, though most of this comes from comparing it to Wan’s previous works. What they all seem to agree on is that there’s a lot of impressive work and talent involved in bringing the doll to life in a way that’s enchanting but terrifying as well, and that M3GAN has the potential to become a cult horror movie, though it might take it some time to get there.