Film Review

M3GAN (2022)

A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own.

January is widely considered the month when distributors quietly release disreputable offerings into a bleak theatrical landscape. Hollywood uses it as an opportunity to make quick cash while critics and audiences are distracted by the awards season. Everything from Hostel (2005), Underworld: Awakening (2012), and Split (2016) briefly dominated multiplexes during the winter months. However, that may change this year with the latest offering from Blumhouse Productions. After one of the most successful viral marketing campaigns of recent years, M3GAN danced, twirled, and cartwheeled her way into horror fandom. Conceptualised by the creators of Malignant (2021), M3GAN packs a surprisingly potent punch while blending horror and humour delightfully.

Cady (Violet McGraw) tragically loses both of her parents following a ski trip accident, leaving her devastated and sent to live with her aunt Gemma (Alison Williams), a robotics engineer for a toy company whose corporate competitors have copied their lucrative robotic pet…