How can a refreshingly exceptional sci-fi horror still carry a hint of disappointment? Answer: when it has been ‘dumbed down’ to cater for a younger audience.
While M3gan has rightly been lauded as a sensational genre piece – we’ll get to that in a minute – it apparently has an R-Rated (18 in the UK) cut that had some of the ‘bloodiness’ taken out to make it PG-13 (15 over here). With this added ‘shock’ factor for certain sequences this could have been even more effective – and we could have been talking five-stars here without doubt.
Fortunately, that’s the only negative out of the way, as this creepy scarer – bit like the original Child’s Play for a new generation – works extremely well on several fronts.
It in fact works just as well on a dark-comedy level, as it does as a horror, with fright-masters Blumhouse Productions and director Gerard Johnstone getting the tone – bar the potential aforementioned ‘gore level’ being decreased – pretty much spot-on.
It even seems to have its tongue firmly-embedded-in-cheek when it comes to mannerisms of the title character – with some noteworthy comedic touches.
And said character is M3GAN – a Model 3 Generative Android – a humanoid robot doll powered by Artificial Intelligence created by roboticist Gemma (Get Out star Allison Williams).
So, when Gemma is made caretaker parent of her young niece Cady (Violet McGraw) after her parents are killed in a car crash, she assigns the yet-fully-tested prototype M3gan (Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis) to support her in getting over this tragedy – while her toy company boss David Lin (Ronny Chieng) urges Gemma to fast-track her new invention for mass production as the latest ‘hot thing’.
But alas, things don’t go to plan, as M3gan starts operating independently and targets anything that is a threat to Cady – as the young girl also starts to develop a strong emotional bond to her new best friend/mentor.
Volatile and violent tendencies soon ensue, as we watch M3gan evolve in an astonishingly scary fashion – where just simple eye movements, or even emulating a dance routine, can send shivers down your spine.
Which makes M3gan an early 2023 sensation that is breathtakingly engrossing – even if its lack of a ‘harder cut’ will potentially prevent it from being a true genre great.
But there’s absolutely no doubt that M3gan still provides a ‘killer’ popcorn-crunching experience for the new year.
ESP Rating: 4/5
Gavin Miller
Showcase Cinema De Lux Peterborough, Out Now
Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jen Van Epps, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Ronny Chieng, Amy Usherwood, Lori Dungey & The Voice Of Jenna Davis
Running Time: 1 Hr 42 Mins
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Go to www.showcasecinemas.co.uk for all the latest film information & showtimes at Peterborough’s Showcase Cinema De Lux.