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M3GAN (2023)

 


M3GAN is a horror movie with the mashup idea of what if the killer doll idea was an artificial intelligence.

With a story by and Produced by James Wan, M3GAN has a marketing team that struck gold. Just look at the box office for a horror movie in the Hollywood dumping ground of January. James Wan is a modern-day Wes Craven and shouldn't need an introduction but I'll mention a few of his works, Saw, The Conjuring, and Insidious.

A part of me thinks the reason why Blumhouse (Production company), and Universal (Distributer) dumped this movie in January was because of the relatively unknown director of Gerard Johnstone. I can only imagine that confidence in him has skyrocketed since this success, as there wasn't too much wrong with the direction.

I imagine that the doll itself is partly CG in the face especially. I'm looking forward to The Corridor Crew doing a deep dive to find out the mystery of how they accomplished the look of M3GAN played by newcomer and accomplished dancer Amie Donald. You can see that dancing ability all over tik tock.

Allison Williams is the biggest star in the film. This is the second horror movie of hers I've seen, see Jordan Peele's Get Out. If she's trying to become the next horror final girl, Mia Goth and Genna Ortega are giving her a run for her money. That being said she does great though I wonder if she's getting a bad reputation based on the characters she plays. In Get Out she wasn't the best person in the world and here she's a selfish aunt.

My biggest issue with the film is the writing. Written by Akela Cooper, there are just scenes that I would have totally rewritten. Don't get me wrong her writing has gotten better since Hell Fest and Malignant, but she still has a long road ahead if she plans to stick around in Hollywood. Riding on James Wan's coattails won't work forever. 

Regardless, M3GAN is a decent addition to horror films and an alright way to start 2023. My original rating for the film is a C.

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