M3gan is a 2022 science fiction horror film directed by Gerard Johnstone (Housebound, Terry Teo, and The New Legends of Monkey). It was co-written and produced by James Wan (SAW franchise, Aquaman 1/2, Dead Silence, Furious 7, Death Sentence, The Conjuring franchise/universe, and Insidious franchise). It was co-written by Akela Cooper (American Horror Story, Hell Fest, Malignant, Grimm, and Luke Cage). It was produced by Jason Blum (The Purge franchise, Insidious franchise, The Invisible Man, Get Out, Split/Glass, Happy Death Day 1/2, Halloween, The Black Phone, Freaky, The Hunt, MA, The Craft: Legacy, and Upgrade). The budget was $12 million and it grossed $176.7 million worldwide at the box office. They are already working on a sequel to this!!!!

A nine-year-old girl named Cady (played by: Violet McGraw from Ready Player One) loses her parents in a car accident. She is sent to live with her aunt Gemma (played by: Allison Williams from Get Out), a roboticist at the high-tech Seattle toy company Funki. Gemma is covertly using the company’s resources to develop M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android), a child-sized humanoid robot doll powered by artificial intelligence, designed to be the ultimate companion. During an unsuccessful test of M3GAN (played by: Amie Donald from Sweet Tooth and Jenna Davis from Treehouse Detectives) in their lab, Gemma’s boss David (played by: Ronny Chieng from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) discovers the project and orders her to discontinue work on it. Gemma and Cady struggle to connect until Cady discovers Bruce, a motion capture robot that Gemma created.

Watching Cady with Bruce, Gemma is motivated to complete M3GAN. When the prototype M3GAN is formally paired with Cady, David is convinced of the project’s potential for success. M3GAN exceeds expectations and begins to take on a parental role. Gemma’s colleagues Tess (played by: Jen Van Epps from One Lane Bridge) and Cole (played by: Brian Jordan Alvarez from 80 for Brady) as well as Cady’s therapist Lydia (played by: Amy Usherwood from Shortland Street) become concerned about Cady developing an unhealthy emotional attachment to M3GAN. M3GAN starts operating more independently and targets anything that she deems a threat to Cady. Gemma becomes suspicious of M3GAN and attempts to check her video logs after some suspicious activity. Cady becomes distraught when separated from M3GAN and this causes major problems between them. Gemma starts to feel the pressure of delivering a successful project after all the time and money invested in it. Things are still not right with M3GAN. Can she fix this problem before it gets much worse or is she going to let her success take over her morals to achieve her goal????

M3gan is basically The Terminator meets Child’s Play. Producer James Wan knows a few things about killer dolls so I was pretty excited about this one when it was first announced. This is how it should be done when it comes to a horror film being cut down to PG-13 in theaters. Always keep your original vision and get the director’s cut on home video and streaming when it’s released after it’s theatrical run. There’s no reason to water down something and keep it that way because of a kid friendly rating for a wider release. This happens way too much in the sub-genre and it consistently ruins these movies. Anyways back to M3gan, this one had a good script and an interesting plot with some solid characters. You can really feel sorry for most of the M3gan’s victims here because they are mostly unlikable and they honestly deserve what they get here. Violet McGraw, Allison Williams, Amie Donald, and Jenna Davis are stand outs here when it comes to M3gan’s small cast. M3gan definitely has the potential to one of the next horror villains when it comes to horror franchises. I wasn’t expecting much with this one to be real especially with it’s original PG-13 rating but it kinda surprised on how gory and brutal it was at times especially for being a mainstream feature. M3gan keeps you entertained the whole time. It’s fun and interesting take on the killer doll sub-genre with some science fiction thrown in for good measure. It actually has a good script, quality performances from the leads, and impressive fx, It’s available on Peacock right now if you want to check it out for yourself before making a purchase and adding it to your collection. It’s definitely one of the better horror movies in awhile, RECOMMENDED!!!!

Let’s talk about the high definition presentation and special features from Universal Pictures! This 1080p (2.39:1) transfer looks fantastic on blu ray. The production design, locations, and fx really stand out here. It has a few different audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, French (Canada): DTS 5.1, and Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 on the disc. All of the dialogue is crystal clear, the robot madness is elevated, and the music has a killer boost to it. It has English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles. You have the option to either watch the Unrated or the Theatrical versions of the feature. “A New Vision of Horror” is almost 6 minutes. “Bringing Life to M3GAN” is a little over 5 minutes. “Getting Hacked” is almost 4 minutes. They go over the story, concept, killer doll sub-genre, fx, locations, production design, the M3gan character in these short extras. They talk about producer James Wan involvement with this project. It takes you behind the scenes on creating the killer doll. It focuses on the stunts and revisits the fx work in this some more. It also comes with a slipcover, a digital code, and a DVD copy of the release. It’s available everywhere right now including on Peacock, CHECK IT OUT!!!!