Having always found realistic looking dolls creepy, M3GAN promised an even more unsettling experience and it truly delivers just that. Writer James Wan (Saw and The Conjuring 2) has used available technology and classic horror movie tropes to concoct a story that falls into the realm of believable.
With the advances happening every day with artificial intelligence, having things go horribly wrong is an arresting scenario and one used here to maximise audience discomfort. And in line with the universal satisfaction of seeing the most deserving of victims get theirs first, it also doesn’t disappoint.
Gemma (Allison Williams) is a master of robotics and AI who works for a toy company. When the overworked employee is left in charge of the care of her sister’s daughter after an accident claims the lives of both parents, she invents M3GAN to help her look after the child.
Rushing the robot into production is a fatal flaw as no real safeguards are applied to the parameters of the operating system. A plot device used before but one especially relevant in today’s quest for even more convenient products that feature microchip processors. It opens a whole new world of potential horrors. You thought Alexa and Siri listening into your world was as bad as it gets?
Rob Hudson
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