#Violet Mcgraw icons

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Violet McGraw as Cady — M3GAN, 2023.

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M3GAN Review

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So back in November of 2022, a trailer for a movie went completely viral on twitter and a new horror icon was born. Or more like a new LGBTQ+ queen emerged from the fire. The trailer itself wasn’t what got everyone talking. It was one part in particular. One part where our new slasher decides to stop and dance before going after one of her victims. You can call it the Dance Seen ‘Round the World. 

The movie was greenlit for a sequel before it was even released. There was a marketing ploy where women dressed as this new slasher, went places, and did the now iconic dance. SNL did a skit about the sequel where our new queen was partying in a gay bar who openly supported the chaos she brings. There’s even been whispers that we’ll see our dancing queen in her own house at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Studios. But aside from the totally out of place dance sequence, does this movie and its new slasher actually deliver?

If you haven’t figured it out from that description, the movie I’m talking about today is the movie about everyone’s newest favorite killer doll, M3GAN. M3GAN absolutely took off before the movie even hit theaters because of a short scene of her dancing (which was filmed as a joke, but left in because clearly, they know what fans wanna see). It dragged all different types of people to the theater to see it when it came out in January of 2023 and has received praise from critics and audiences alike. Directed by Gerald Johnstone and starring Allison Williams of Girls and Get Out fame and Violet McGraw from the Haunting of Hill House, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon and M3GAN’s sick moves made her a… gay icon? I don’t know. I feel like we’re grasping at straws here sometimes!

However, I feel like it’s a movie that’s been vastly overhyped. It’s not necessarily a bad movie. It’s a predictable slasher film retelling a story we’ve heard before. It does well in its serious moments, has some chuckles, but overall, it depends on who you watch it with. On its own, it’s a subpar horror flick with nothing new to add to the genre, but watching it with the right people can take this generic horror flick and elevate it to absolute riot. Which I guess could be said about any film, but I feel this more so with M3GAN. It’s built to be watched with friends - preferably enthusiastic gay ones who’ll offer color commentary to all of M3GAN’s antics. That’s not me trying to be rude or anything. I don’t think that they knew when making the film that us gays would latch on to it like we did with the… Babadook for some reason. Again, why? But it definitely feels like something they knew would inevitably happen.

But I don’t wanna get too ahead of myself. So, what I’m gonna do is break this blog down into two parts. Part one will be me summarizing the movie itself and part two will be me discussing why I think this movie is overrated. If you haven’t seen this film yet, it’s on Peacock now and there’s an unrated cut which I will be discussing as well. Go ahead and watch the movie, then come back and read!

Without further ado, let’s boot M3GAN up and see what she’s all about!

Part 1: I Am Titanium!

Before I go into the summary, I’d like to state that the unrated cut of this film is utterly pointless. There are no new scenes added and even the gore that they did have to me didn’t seem to warrant the title of “unrated” as it’s typical gore you’d see in any standard R-rated horror flick. At most, they added a lot more F-bombs. That was pretty much it. I was expecting something much gnarlier for it to be considered something they couldn’t release as it was to theaters. To me, the unrated cut is definitely a marketing ploy to get more seasoned horror fans to watch the movie in case they might’ve sat this one out. Not worth the watch really unless you absolutely need to see a child get their ear ripped off.

Anyways, this movie starts out with a commercial. No seriously. It opens with a commercial for a toy called the Purrrfect Petz with a z. Basically a riff off the Furby monstrosities that existed in the 90s and early 2010s. You can talk to them and they talk back, feed them and they… poop. It’s just very obviously supposed to be a callback to that era in time. From there it cuts to a family of three driving in heavy snow. The daughter - McGraw’s Cady - is playing with her Purrrfect Pet on her iPad while the parents argue about her having too much screentime. The mother even makes a comment about what the point of the toy is if you have to use an iPad to play with it. They’re arguing so much that the father starts to veer off the road. They decide to stop and wait out the worst of the snow before finding a place to pull over and wait for a snowplow to come through. Just as the father asks when that will be, a snowplow appears in front of them and rams right into the car before cutting to a title screen.

We then head to the toy company, Funki, to meet Williams’ character, Gemma, as she and her colleagues are trying to come up with a new prototype of the Petz toy to present to their boss. One of the colleagues comes in with a box revealing that it’s skin for the new toy they’re working on. They put the skin on the toy and start running tests on it when their boss, David, comes in asking them where the new prototype is. Gemma decides to show him how far she’s gotten with the toy they just put skin on, but when she does, the toy malfunctions with its head exploding. David reiterates that he wants the Petz project done by Friday or they’ll be in a lot of trouble. Shortly after that, Gemma receives a call. It turns out that the woman in the opening sequence was Gemma’s sister and she and her husband died in the snowplow accident. However, Cady survived. Gemma is granted custody of her niece and takes Cady home.

Gemma is clearly shown to not be mother material. She doesn’t have a dedicated space for a child and tells Cady, as she’s attempting to play with her collectables, that they’re not toys. After getting her settled in, Cady asks Gemma to read her a story to which Gemma mentions that she doesn’t have any children’s books, but downloads one on her phone for her. The passage of time is not very clear between this scene and the next one. We know it’s been a few weeks since Cady’s hospital stay and her coming to live with Gemma, but when the therapist comes to see her, it’s not clear how much time has passed. 

I have a few issues with the therapist in this movie. First off, when she comes to the house, she doesn’t introduce herself. She just assumes Gemma should know who she is. Without the context of whether or not Gemma has seen her, it doesn’t make Gemma look incompetent. If someone knocked on my door and just said, “Hi!” and expected me to know exactly who they are without introduction, I’d probably react the same exact way. The therapist doesn’t say, “Hi, I’m Lydia. I’m here for the home visit.” Nothing. Just stands there staring at her with a judgmental smile because she didn’t immediately know who she is. I think if there was a scene of Gemma either meeting her before this or seeing a picture of her and not recognizing her, it would make the audience think, “wow. Gemma is already showing her incompetence as a guardian!”

The second issue is she seems SO judgmental. I know her point is to gauge whether or not Cady will thrive in this new environment, but from the moment she walks in, she’s treating Gemma like she has no idea how to deal with kids. She makes a remark about them watching TV and still being in their pajamas. Like the kid JUST lost both her parents! If she doesn’t wanna get dressed, then she shouldn’t have to! Besides, she’s literally sitting at home. Why does she need to be all dressed up? I work from home and my idea of dressing up is leggings and a t-shirt which can also be used to sleep in! Then when Cady tells her she doesn’t have any toys there, she shoots Gemma a look like she’s the worst human ever. Again - this whole situation JUST happened. Let the kid get settled in. Let Gemma mourn her sister and adapt to her situation. I don’t know how these situations work in real life, but this is just very unrealistic and as a viewer, you can tell that this is just unnecessary forced conflict. But the part that really sucks is that Gemma’s never really IN danger of losing Cady. Of course we see the therapist pop up here and there and there’s talk of her potentially losing Cady to her in-laws, but like… there’s no weight to any of this. I feel like they could’ve either shown Gemma giving less of a shit about Cady which would’ve justified the therapist’s disdain towards her or they could’ve made the therapist just see she’s trying her best and be a lot less judgmental towards her. Gemma’s grieving, too, and just as equally thrown into a situation she was nowhere near equipped for. Cut her some damn slack!

Anyways, so after the therapist leaves, Gemma has to get some work done so she leaves Cady to her own devices. Later, Cady comes to show her a drawing she did of a toy design in an effort to help inspire her aunt. They have a bonding moment and Gemma ends up showing her a robot she made named Bruce. Keep him in the back of your mind because he’ll be important later on! Bruce is controlled by a human with gloves and he can basically behave like a human. Gemma explains how he works and Cady says that if she had a toy like Bruce, she would never need another toy again. This gets Gemma thinking and from there she builds our girl. Our queen - M3GAN which stands for Model 3 Generative Android.

When she pitches M3GAN to David, he about shits his pants with delight, realizing M3GAN is the most advanced toy ever made. She’s a humanoid computer, even capable of recognizing a child’s emotional state and comforting them. She takes care of everything that typically other humans - like parents - should. A revelation that Gemma’s colleague, Tess, has when she asks when parents would spend time with their kids. She also underhandedly calls M3GAN a way for Gemma to get out of truly bonding with Cady. Gemma defends herself by saying that Cady needs to spend as much time as she can with M3GAN in preparation for the presentation.

We then get to see M3GAN’s first act of violence. Gemma has a neighbor named Celia who has a very aggressive dog named Dewey. Dewey is always getting over to Gemma’s yard and pooping on her driveway, but of course, Celia doesn’t think it’s her fault or that she should have to take care of any of it. Later, when M3GAN goes to retrieve a toy just by the fence, Dewey bites her arm, dragging her into Celia’s yard. Then he bites her neck and head. When Cady goes to help M3GAN, Dewey then bites her in the arm. That sets a target on the dog’s back and M3GAN decides to off Ol’ Yeller. We don’t actually see the dog die or ever see a body so if you’re a person who can’t stand to see animals harmed, this one may be ok for you since it’s just implied, but of course, always approach with caution. 

This leads M3GAN to start questioning life and death - even asking Gemma how Cady’s parents died before looking it up herself. She questions her own mortality and starts to figure out she basically can’t “die” in the traditional sense of the word. Her main directive is to protect Cady and she plans to do that by any means possible.

Of course, when the presentation rolls around, M3GAN ends up wowing the executives. Mainly because Cady has a very real breakdown about losing her parents and M3GAN not only shows them that she can store anything that Cady tells her in her system, but that she actually can comfort and cheer up a child. They’re ready to invest in M3GAN by any means necessary. But through this demonstration, Gemma sees just how broken Cady is over the loss of her parents. She decides it’s time for Cady to get out into the real world and meet some actual children. So, she enrolls her into this school where the kids learn outside in the woods. Side note: why? That’s just dangerous. I’m all for alternative schools and different learning methods, but there’s all sorts of dangerous animals in the woods! Why would you ever have a school where children are put out there like that?

Cady says she’ll only go to school if she can bring M3GAN with her, showing just how attached she’s gotten to her. Gemma argues with her about it on the day of, but the teacher ends up convincing Gemma to stay with M3GAN so that Cady will feel more comfortable. Cady ends up getting paired up with the school bully, Brandon, and of course he decides to bully her which wakes up M3GAN and causes Brandon to take her and run off to a deeper part of the woods. He tries to get M3GAN to play with him, but she won’t since she only answers to Cady. As he goes to destroy the toy, M3GAN springs to life, grabbing his ear and giving him a lecture about how bad boys grow up to be bad men. She then rips off his ear and depending on which version you watch, you either get an extremely close up shot of this or not. 

At this point, Brandon realizes she’s dangerous. She tells him, “this is the part where you run” and he doesn’t hesitate to take off through the woods. M3GAN follows him on all fours which seems like the least efficient way to get around even for a supercharged toy - until he ends up falling down the side of a hill and rolling into the middle of the road. In an instant, Brandon is hit by a car and killed. 

The very next day, the neighbor, Celia, has called the police believing that Gemma had something to do with her dog, Dewey’s disappearance. Gemma asserts that she had nothing to do with it, but Celia outwardly accuses M3GAN. Gemma reassures the police that M3GAN is a toy and couldn’t do any harm. Later that night, M3GAN decides to show Celia just how dangerous she is when she breaks into her shed and douses the woman in pesticides. I actually think the original version of this scene is better than the unrated one. In the unrated one, you do see a bit of her face peeling off before it hard cuts to the next day. In the original version, it cuts away from her being pressure washed with pesticides and shows blood slowly creeping on the floor. It’s that show - don’t tell mentality that makes the original scene a bit creepier to watch because you can only imagine the damage it’s doing to her face.

The police come back again the next day to inform Gemma of Celia’s passing and question her on what happened. Gemma is now fully suspect of M3GAN and tries to look through her system files to find videos of her whereabouts during the time of both Brandon and Celia’s murders. What do you know? M3GAN wiped the files from her memory. Gemma gets caught red handed by M3GAN and deactivates her, wrapping her in plastic before taking her away from the house. This is when Cady basically has a  meltdown. She starts to act out, screaming, crying, cussing at Gemma. Gemma takes her for a meeting with the therapist only for Cady to pull scissors and threaten Lydia with them. 

When Gemma steps in to calm her down, Cady slaps her across the face before realizing she’s gone too far. She apologizes to Gemma stating that she needs M3GAN. She tells her when she’s with M3GAN, this is the only time she doesn’t feel the grief and pain. Gemma tells her she should and actually gives her a good lesson on grief, explaining that she lost so much at such a young age and it’s normal to feel the way that she’s feeling. She also relates to her by saying she misses Cady’s parents, too. After all, even though we don’t know the full scope of the relationship between Gemma and her sister, she obviously trusted Gemma enough to leave Cady to her and Gemma does seem to be feeling the loss as well. I’ll talk in the next segment more about how I feel M3GAN was also a way for Gemma to cope with her grief in this situation, but for now, let’s continue. The movie is almost done!

Gemma opts to skip the presentation and take Cady home for the night, realizing that her mental wellbeing is far more important than some doll. But she left M3GAN in the lab with her colleagues who are working on trying to find out what’s wrong with her. M3GAN hacks into Tess’ phone to call Gemma and find out where she and Cady went while mimicking Tess’ voice. She then springs to life and attacks her colleagues, setting the lab on fire before moving on to where the presentation is. It’s here we get the now iconic scene that everyone knows and loves.

David is trying to reach Gemma on the phone, angry that not only is she not there for the presentation, but neither is M3GAN. As he rounds the corner, he spots M3GAN at the end of the hall and… she starts dancing. It’s such an utterly bizarre scene and even after seeing the millions of memes of it, it still is hilarious in the context of the movie. I mean, the killer starts dancing. What…? Why? She then rips off the blade to one of those paper cutters and goes after David. He runs to the elevator where his assistant, Cole, is heading up. He begs Cole to hold the door, but given that he’s been such a shitty boss and verbally abused Cole on more than one occasion, Cole starts to close the doors. David manages to push through them just as M3GAN catches up to him and stabs him through the chest. In the unrated version, Cole is sprayed with David’s blood, but in the original one, you just see him fall to the ground. After that, M3GAN basically tells Cole she’ll frame him for David’s murder, but then she kills Cole and depending on which version you watch, you either get a very bloody sequence of her slitting Cole’s throat or she puts the blade in his hand and pushes it forward into his throat. The elevator finally gets to the floor where the presentation is taking place and M3GAN manages to escape before the onlookers spot the dead bodies in there. She then takes a car to go back to Gemma and Cady’s house.

Gemma puts Cady to sleep and then talks to Elsie (which is like the Amazon Echo) to get her to turn on the lights in the hallway. When that doesn’t work, she walks back into the living room to hear M3GAN playing the song Toy Soldiers on the piano. M3GAN talks about how Gemma never wanted a kid in the first place and how things have been so much easier for Gemma since she came along. They begin to fight, taking it through the house until Cady goes to see what’s happening.

M3GAN tries to convince Cady that they should kill Gemma and just live the two of them and at first, it seems like Cady might give in to that request, but then she tells M3GAN about another member of their family. That member is Bruce! Cady brings Bruce out and brawls with M3GAN robot-to-robot before using Bruce to rip M3GAN in half and toss the pieces across the room. It seems at that moment that M3GAN is really defeated, but of course that would be too easy.

M3GAN’s upper torso comes back and grabs Cady by the throat, prompting Gemma to attack M3GAN and try to pull her brain apart by ripping the skin and mechanics out. M3GAN gets the upper hand and begins to choke Gemma out. Then Cady pulls out a screwdriver and jams it into M3GAN’s mainframe, killing her once and for all. The police along with Gemma’s colleagues arrive to make sure they’re alright, but as the movie draws to a close, we see that Elsie - the equivalent of the Amazon Echo - has suddenly sprung to life and turns its little robot eye to look at the camera. Hinting at a sequel we already know is coming.

Part 2: Dancing Queen

So here’s the thing about M3GAN. It’s meant to be goofy. There’s a hint of humor laced throughout the entire film and that’s even prevalent in the trailer as well. It was never meant to be taken seriously and is just what they call a popcorn flick. Something you turn your brain off and watch with the intention to just get a good solid laugh out of it. That being said, M3GAN herself is definitely creepy. From the very uncanny way her face moves to her childlike and robotic voice that only thinly hides the fact that she’s a computer and knows everything. We can laugh at her dance moves all we want, but if I woke up in the middle of the night and saw her in my living room - even without the movie’s existence - I would find her utterly terrifying. There’s no denying M3GAN is a horror icon for a new generation. Sure, she’s basically just Chucky, but to me she’s scarier than Chucky because she has the intelligence to match her sadism. 

I’d done a review on the remake of Child’s Play a few years ago and one thing I said is there’s something scary about the idea of the tech we’re so accustomed to and reliant on coming to life and fighting back. The Child’s Play remake had a lot of pushback for changing many elements to the iconic story and diehard fans of that franchise were not receptive to its existence despite it being a solid film overall. M3GAN is basically the Child’s Play remake, but it gets away with being that because it doesn’t involve Chucky. It tells a cautionary tale about our gadgets becoming so advanced that they begin to outrank us. We become mere specks of dust in the wake of their greatness.

There’s another tale to be told here as well and that’s a tale of grief. Cady is a literal child - only in elementary school - when she loses both of her parents in one fell swoop. She also loses her stability. She goes from her home to her aunt’s home basically overnight. She’s scared, alone, and she doesn’t know how to convey any of those emotions because they’re big emotions for a child to feel. Gemma - on the flip side - is a workaholic who is so focused on advancing technology in the toy world that she doesn’t seem to have time for much else. Then she’s suddenly thrust into this guardian role that she feels she has to take. Partially because it was her sister’s wish, but also because she does seem to love and care about her niece. While the movie focuses mainly on the fact that Cady is a child going through immense trauma, it also dabbles in the fact that Gemma is also experiencing a huge amount of trauma herself. 

M3GAN is a trauma response for Gemma. Gemma has no idea how to be a parent. She has no idea how to help a child process such a huge feeling such as the grief of losing her parents and normalcy. Especially because Gemma has no idea how to process her own grief at losing her sister and her lack of preparation for a situation like this to happen. She builds M3GAN as a companion for Cady, but M3GAN ends up being a bandaid over a bullet hole. Cady only talks to M3GAN about her feelings because she doesn’t feel like the adults around her understand the pain she’s in. M3GAN plays with Cady and gives her a sense of normalcy she otherwise wouldn’t have and when M3GAN is forcibly taken away from her by Gemma, she lashes out and becomes incredibly violent. Mainly because she has no idea how to feel the pain she’s in. She doesn’t want to feel it. She wants M3GAN back to distract her from the reality that her parents are gone forever. As for Gemma, Gemma uses M3GAN as a way to do the things she feels she’s incapable of doing. She lets M3GAN do the parenting while she focuses on her work and how to drop M3GAN into every American home she can. But when she realizes throughout the film that Cady is bonded more to M3GAN than to her, she tries to step in and create boundaries for Cady with M3GAN. She starts to realize that having a robotic child basically parent your kid for you is a negative thing. On top of that, she knows in her heart that M3GAN is too advanced, learning at a rapid rate about humanity and following her directive at any cost to protect Cady from harm. Even if that means harming Gemma herself so Cady and her can live and play in peace. When you really think about Gemma and Cady’s relationships with M3GAN, it makes the movie sadder and a bit creepier. These are two people thrown into a terrible situation after losing their family who use technology to cover up the pain and deal with the changes thrown at them.

That being said, this movie doesn’t linger on the actual pain and grief for too long. Despite its 1 hour and 41 minute run time, you don’t ever feel like Gemma is in danger of losing Cady because of her incompetence as a guardian nor do you ever really feel Cady’s pain of her loss deeply. There are glimpses of it, but nothing serious. Because this movie is not to be taken seriously. It’s a movie about a killer doll that comes to life and offs people. And sings Sia for some reason. And dances, let's not forget the dancing.

Overall, M3GAN isn’t a bad movie. It’s just… not as good as everyone made it out to be. It’s fun, it’s got its funny parts, the dance is great, and M3GAN herself is very creepy. I watched this movie back to back - once for the theatrical cut and again for the unrated one - and overall, it’s a movie that needs to be watched with the right people. People who are going to make it fun. Otherwise, it’s just a typical slasher film with minimal gore in BOTH versions (which isn’t like a bad thing or anything. Just still annoyed about the unrated version basically being nothing special) and a slasher who may just be this generation’s Chucky. M3GAN is definitely not going anywhere and I’m OK with that. She’s cool, she’s creepy, and honestly she’s got some sick ass dance moves. I hope whatever they do with the sequel, we get another scene of her dancing as she kills people. Make that her signature going forward. So, for that, I am going to award M3GAN 3 out of 5 skulls. If you’re looking for something fun to watch with friends for the night, this is one I highly recommend!

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M3GAN and the History of January Horror

January, for the longest time, has seemingly become a month for film devoted to three things: films seeking awards attention, films still playing from the holidays, and horror movies.

As long as I can remember, January has been a dumping ground for less-than-stellar horror flicks that studios unfortunately leave to die in cinemas. The vast majority of them being disliked by critics and audiences alike. Despite this, they often end up still making enough to break even due to their low price tags and advertising costs.

However, when the trailer for ���M3GAN” first dropped a few months ago and people saw that January release date, the sense of worry surrounding January released horror was immediately overshadowed by incredibly high levels of hype. From a M3GAN Twitter account to gifs of the android doing kicks and flips to even a surprise remixed Taylor Swift deep cut, the film already had audience members in love and optimistic for the film.

Now, it seems our new murderous android bestie is officially dancing her way past the January horror curse after being released in theaters with stellar reception. With a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and close to $3 million in revenue from previews. “M3GAN” is projected to gross up to $20 million in its opening weekend alone, exceeding its $12 million budget breaking even in its first weekend alone.

If it opens higher than expected, it could even challenge “Avatar: The Way of Water” for the number one spot. However, my new favorite killer robot will face other horror competition almost every weekend of this month, so it will be very interesting to see how, and if, she is able to fend off the competition.

As for the film itself, “M3GAN” is as much fun as it looks to be. It was much funnier than expected, and even moments that were scary couldn’t helped but to be laughed with. Allison Williams once again shows that she is phenomenal in horror performances, and child actor Violet McGraw holds her own incredibly well in every scene, seemingly knowing how to perfectly balance the sadness and humor her character possesses.

The standout, of course, is the titular android, played with perfect terror and comedy by Amie Donald and voiced to terrifying comedic brilliance by Jenna Davis. M3GAN is going to become an iconic horror staple incredibly quickly because of their joint work to create such a scary and hilarious antagonist.

The film also beautifully comments on grief and the ways we act and things we do in those moments to help or hide our emotions. Williams and McGraw are the emotional core of the film, and both are able to perfectly keep that in tact while all of the murderous and hilarious shenanigans go on around them.

This is one movie worthy of the theater experience. My entire theater was perfectly in tune with the film. The film ended in applause, something I hadn’t seen at an AMC in a very long time. It’s clear people love M3GAN, and I really hope M3GAN loves us back.

[collindelade]

M3GAN (MEGAN) Review

"Way above the expected trash January horror movie!"

Typically in the month of January, Hollywood tends to throw out mediocre movies that are expected to review poorly and make a quick buck off the premise alone. With the concept of a killer doll that is very reminiscent of "Child's Play" star, Chucky, "M3GAN" appeared to fit the description of a "January movie". To a lot of people's surprise, M3GAN is getting strong reviews!

M3GAN focuses on a toy inventor named Gemma (Allison Williams), who is struggling to connect with her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) after the death of the young girl's parents. Currently trying to create a revolutionary new product, Gemma builds the A.I. doll M3gan for Cady to play with. As M3gan evolves to her surroundings, she becomes very dangerous and violent for her sole direction to protect Cady.

What separates M3GAN from any other killer doll or evil child movie is how smart and relatable Gemma and Cady are as flawed humans. Gemma is an awkward guardian thrown into this parental role she's not equipped for and Cady is a confused child not knowing how to process grief and her feelings. The movie knows to take the time to set up these characters before throwing M3gan into the mix.

Speaking of the titular character, she also doesn't come out as pure evil and violent. Aside from the intentionally creepy and unsettling design by the filmmakers, she starts off as a caring and approachable companion to Cady. There is a natural evolution to the main characters that feels natural and engaging.

When M3gan does start to get destructive, she's unstoppable. M3gan earns her spot as a horror icon from the personality she gives off to the effect itself of bringing her to life. Performed by two actresses, Amie Donald does a great job in her physical performance selling the robotic and still movements and Jenna Davis is wickedly charming as the voice. Together, Donald and Davis create an electrifying and entertaining character that's chilling even when M3gan is just talking.

While the main characters stand out greatly and boost the movie, everything else is standard. The rest of the characters don't leave any impression. They are underdeveloped and just there to fit a role to push the story along. Also, the viral scene of M3gan dancing in the hallway is rather unnecessary and pointless. The clip does a great job selling the film, but it should have been cut out in the actual movie. Finally, the finale goes full throttle on delivering an epic crowd-pleasing climax while neglecting a proper epilogue and a major plot hole.

Even with its shortcomings, M3GAN is way better than it has any right to be. The writing is strong, the characters are interesting, and M3gan is fun to follow. While it does have its shortcoming, the film still delivers where it needs to and leaves audiences with possibly a new horror icon.

7.5/10

[suchananewsblog]

‘M3gan’ Star Violet McGraw Signs For Indie Production ‘A Wonderful Way With Dragons’

Violet McGraw, whose iconic dancing within the shock horror hit M3gan grew to become a viral sensation, has signed to headline the solid for A Wonderful Way with Dragons, written, directed, and produced by Delfine Paolini. The movie will start manufacturing this summer time in Upstate NY. It marks Paolini’s function movie directorial debut. ‘Dragons’ follows a gaggle of six youngsters and a…

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Watch "'M3GAN' Star Violet McGraw Does Iconic Movie Dance With Mario Lopez" on YouTube

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M3egan

Which of us hasn’t dreamed of a special friend who could minster to our emotional needs and take out anyone or anything threatening our wellbeing? That’s the special appeal of Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN (2022, On Demand). Robotics whiz Allison Williams is working on a new toy for her manic boss (Ronny Chieng, who’s very funny) when she becomes guardian to her orphaned niece (Violet McGraw). She has no idea how to cope with the grieving child until she decides to combine her challenges by testing her new robot, M3gan, on the child. M3gan is an algorithm from hell. It’s designed to learn behavioral cues from its primary user while also scanning the internet to learn whatever else it needs. But as it develops a will of its own, it decides the best way to help McGraw is to kill anything it perceives as a threat — a vicious dog here, a school bully there and eventually anybody it feels like. Screenwriter Akela Cooper (working from a story she developed with James Wan, who for once doesn’t screw up the writing) has the wisdom to treat the film as vaguely absurd. It takes a lot of logical jumps to get from today’s A.I. to M3gan, but she makes the whole thing fun and makes the victims an unsympathetic lot, so you can enjoy watching them get it. M3GAN is consistently entertaining, even if it’s a rather facile comment on our growing dependence on technology. Williams may not be totally believable as a scientific genius, but she’s very believable as a young woman thrust into parenthood before she’s ready for it. She has an open, wide-eyed face that registers confusion well, and she plays out a nice arc in her relationship to McGraw. M3gan herself is a little wonder, a combination of animatronics, CGI, good physical work by child actress Amie Donald and an effective voiceover. With the theme of found family and lines that parody film villains and self-help slogans (“I have a new primary user now: me.”), M3gan has become a gay icon. I mean, what self-respecting gay man wouldn’t want to hang out with someone who can meet his emotional needs, teach him the newest dance steps and dispose of phobes and attitude queens?

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Will There Be a M3GAN Sequel?

Will There Be a M3GAN Sequel?

“M3GAN,” the new horror movie about a terrifying AI doll, became instantly iconic the minute viewers saw her in the movie’s first trailer. The movie stars Allison Williams as Gemma, a robotics engineer who designs M3GAN to be the perfect toy. She gifts the first — and only prototype — to her niece Cady (Violet McGraw), only for M3GAN to go on a rampage of terror. Though M3GAN is no longer a…

[technewslive]

Will There Be a M3GAN Sequel?

Will There Be a M3GAN Sequel?

“M3GAN,” the new horror movie about a terrifying AI doll, became instantly iconic the minute viewers saw her in the movie’s first trailer. The movie stars Allison Williams as Gemma, a robotics engineer who designs M3GAN to be the perfect toy. She gifts the first — and only prototype — to her niece Cady (Violet McGraw), only for M3GAN to go on a rampage of terror. Though M3GAN is no longer a…

[themovieblogonline]

M3GAN Official Trailer Combines The Killer Doll & Murderous AI Tropes Into A Creepy New Sub-Genre

Universal Picture's newest horror thriller seems oddly familiar, but with a technological twist. The M3GAN official trailer shows off a terrifying new movie that is the stuff nightmares are made of. The movie looks to be a reinvention of the murderous doll trope of horror, made popular by the Chucky and Annabelle franchises. However, this time around, it’s a robot doll that’s running loose being an absolute creep show. The official trailer for M3GAN is disturbing, unnerving and looks like a lot of fun! In the trailer, we find out that M3GAN actually stands for ‘Model 3 Generative Android’. When a robotics engineer (Allison Williams) creates a robot to keep her newly orphaned niece company, basically an emotional support doll, nothing can go wrong, right? Of course, not! The android develops a close relationship with the niece, Kady (Violet McGraw). Maybe too close. Inevitably, M3GAN interprets her command to protect Kady too literally, and it all hits the fan. The M3GAN official trailer is quite the thrill ride. While it starts very sweet, it very quickly escalates into a quirky, psychotic and completely off-the-wall story that I can’t wait to watch! Produced by Blumhouse and horror filmmaker James Wan, the movie looks to be an amazing entry into the horror genre. Especially when you consider that the story comes from screenwriter Akela Cooper, who also wrote the story of Malignant, one of the greatest horror films of that year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRb4U99OU80 What’s super fun about the trailer is also just how creepy it is. Murderous dolls aren’t a new genre of horror. The aforementioned Chucky and Wan’s own Annabelle franchise are great examples of similar ideas done before. But M3GAN combines all of those along with the greatest murderous Artificial Intelligence tropes as well. Such as Hal 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey or all robots in th Terminator franchise. But the genius of M3GAN is combining all those tropes, and personifying them all into the body of a cute young girl. Not to mention that she is also sassy AF. The actual M3GAN android looks harmless enough to be sweet, but also creepy enough to be an instant classic.  The freaky dance in the trailer is absolutely going to become an iconic GIF. I can just see it now. M3GAN releases in theatres on January 13, 2023. How creeped out were you by the M3GAN trailer? Let me know in the comments below. Read the full article

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The Haunting of Hill House: Little Nell

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