Killer dolls have long been a staple of horror fiction. The notion of a kid’s toy crawling out of the uncanny valley with a knife in its hand and a bloodthirsty glint in its eye just has a certain je ne sais AAAAHHH! But toys are a lot more sophisticated these days, a fact reflected in the new Blumhouse horror joint, M3gan, which is in cinemas right now.
Written by Malignant scribe Akela Cooper from a story she devised with Australian horror workhorse James Wan and directed by New Zealand filmmaker Gerald Johnstone (Housebound), M3gan sees the titular doll (played by Aimee Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) gifted to shy orphan Cady (Violet McGraw) by her workaholic aunt and new guardian, Gemma (Alison Williams of Get Out).
The thing is, Auntie Emma is a roboticist and M3gan has a head full of advanced AI and is programmed to bond with and learn from its grieving charge. And when anything bad happens to Cady? Well. M3gan is just following her programming, even if it means killing the neighbour’s dog or ripping the ear off a school bully. And that’s just for starters…
Comparisons with the Child’s Play franchise are inevitable, especially the recent remake that saw the iconic Chucky reimagined as a high tech toy gone awry, but we should also nod towards the schlock classic Chopping Mall, not to mention the ur-example of the techno-terror subgenre, The Terminator (while the franchise became an action staple from the first sequel, the original film is horror).
But M3gan is its own thing, imbued with a sly, uneasy sense of humour while throwing shade at surveillance capitalism and our reliance on technology. It’s also fairly kid-friendly. Maybe the younger set might balk, but it’s a good entry level horror movie for the tweens and up. Maybe you won’t need to hire a babysitter to check this one out.
