‘M3GAN’: Blumhouse mixes science fiction and killer dolls in a watered-down film

Dolls aren’t always that loyal friend who will keep you entertained, no matter how much ‘Toy Story’ fought to make us believe. Sometimes, the dolls question their very existence and unleash a desire to kill that consumes them. A multitude of horror films have fueled this idea, giving them a sinister twist dolls watching you from a shelf, staring into space, giving the impression that they are waiting for us to fall asleep to jump on us and kill us slowly and cruelly. The greatest forerunner of this idea is, without a doubt, “Chucky, The Diabolical Doll” and its millions of sequels; but we also have the version of the Warren family in ‘Annabelle’, the terrifying ventriloquist in ‘Silence from evil’ or the hyper-realistic doll in ‘The Boy’.

Now you need to add to list ‘M3GAN’, the new horror film enclosed under the Blumhouse label, a producer known to all with genuine milestones of the genre in her filmography, namely ‘Paranormal Activity’, ‘Insidious’, ‘Sinister’ or ‘Let me out’; She has also participated in other projects that are outside the framework, such as “Infiltrator in the KKKlan” or “Whiplash”. Although she does not write or direct, the great James Wan (‘Saw’, ‘Warren Files’) is listed as the creator of the story and its producer (along with Jason Blum), which was already a powerful guarantee. But it is also that the screenplay is signed by Akela Cooper, also the author of ‘Malign’, one of the horror phenomena of 2021 directed by Wan himself. On this occasion, Gerard Johnstone is directing, who has had only one feature film to his credit so far: ‘Housebound’.

On this occasion, M3GAN is a robotic doll created by Gemma (Allison Williams) and her two developer friends in the face of the bad sale of toys their company has, clearly losing compared to the competition. His granddaughter Cady, played by Violet McGraw (“The Haunting of Hill House”), will be left to care for him after her parents’ death, leading to deep confusion and sadness. With no toy and no friends, Cady can’t lift her head or get along with her aunt, so she decides to introduce her to the robot girl. The cast is completed by Ronny Chieng (‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’), Brian Jordan Alvarez (‘Will and Grace’), Jen Van Epps (‘Cowboy Bebop’), Lori Dungey and Stephane Garneau-Monten. .

I’ve seen this before

Its structure, a priori, sounds formal and simple, something which, as the plot develops, is confirmed. It follows all the guidelines that support this type of story: introduction of the seemingly harmless evil child/doll, sentimental or emotional dysfunction giving rise to the toy’s approach to the family, and finally, revelation of its true intentions: kill humans. It is, therefore, tremendously predictable; it is very easy to guess which paths it is about to travel because, in fact, we have seen them thousands of times. The jumpscares, much claimed and revived this year by the brilliant ‘Smile’, are scarce and ineffective. ‘M3GAN’ is as much about creating a grim staging and twisted psychological setting as it is about executing the most pragmatic scare.

The great virtue of ‘M3GAN’ is the girl-robot that gives the film its name. With the body of actress Amie Donald and the voice of Jenna Davis, this robotic doll manages to deliver the bad vibes intended. Mixing animatronics with a real actress, M3GAN gets a creepy CGI-generated face, somewhere between the most shameless cunning and the most unexpected genius.. This, coupled with the sci-fi subtext, achieves an engaging tone that barely lifts the film. Due to the AI ​​treatment, ‘M3GAN’ may be vaguely reminiscent of (saving a lot of distance) the masterful ‘After Yang’, an intimate enterprise that is also about a cute robot who belongs to the family and plays a leading role; or Steven Spielberg’s “AI Artificial Intelligence” about something that isn’t human but appears to be human, while being as creepy as possible.

In summary, ‘M3GAN’ joins Blumhouse’s long list of upgradable films. And it is curious, because despite the fact that in recent times there has been a strong rejection of any “elevated horror” (that classist concept that insults those films without any pretense), ‘M3GAN’ develops as a film that fails even in neither the one nor the other. It’s not a complex psychological horror story, but neither is it a compelling proposition and its premise, like this year’s surprising ‘Barbarian’ might be. Johnstone’s film falls short of its brilliant premise and boils down to TikTok promo dances and Twitter memes.

Note: 6

The best: The girl-robot design and premise, mixing sci-fi and horror.

Worse: It does not innovate or take risks in its development, resulting tremendously predictable.