Despite the laughable film, M3GAN (2023), receiving a 94% rating on rotten tomatoes, how can it even be considered a horror or thriller when the four-foot doll starts singing “Titanium”? 

Movies with evil dolls are certainly nothing new to the film industry, so what is the point of continuing to advance them or in other words, worsen them. M3GAN (2023) is the story of a little girl, Cady, whose parents tragically die (totally original) and the only family she has is her incapable aunt, Gemma, who happens to be a roboticist for a toy company working on a robot meant to be a friend to children and parents. Gemma struggles to take care of Cady and truly connect with her and comfort her. Luckily for Gemma, she has M3GAN, a robot that could assist her and be a friend to Cady. One thing leads to another, Cady becomes obsessed with M3GAN; it grows out of Gemma’s control, artificial intelligence rears its ugly head and the robot becomes an overly advanced 4 ‘0 serial killer! The anticipated ending finally occurs. Gemma and Cady ‘defeat’ M3GAN and in turn grow closer than anyone expected, shocker.

Based on that summary, how could people have possibly enjoyed this?

Erie serial killer dolls are not a futuristic concept. The first scary doll film dates back to 1929 with The Great Gabbo and has only continued with films such as Child’s Play “Film” (1988), Annabelle “Film” (2014), and The Boy “Film” (2016). Even by just looking up “scary doll movies” you get tons of results and M3GAN happens to be one of them. So now we ask the question, when will the
idea finally be worn out? When will people realize that it is overdone? When will directors finally start asking “what’s the point?” When screenwriters bring the ideas to the table? It can be argued that these ideas keep coming to the screens because people like scary dolls, they like the horror aspec. They like walking into thrift shops and seeing vintage dolls and being afraid. So did M3GAN have that same effect?

After interviewing several peers, it was generally grasped that M3GAN was not well received as a horror film because it was so difficult to take seriously. Sami Hodlofski, a student at Quakertown Community High School, felt that “the use of TikTok humor ruined the movie.” Modernization of dialogue in films makes them so much harder to take seriously because it feels unnatural and wrong, almost as if the directors are trying to connect with their audience in all the wrong ways; trying to be something they are not. However, some students thought the film was a horror film. Another student at QCHS(Quakertown Community High School), Ciara Mory, claimed that the film was “horrifying, M3GAN’s terrifying” but “the plot was expected.” Evidently, the ‘horror’ aspect of the film varies between viewers, but it is widely agreeable that the plot was expected and ruined by modernization… These reviews could serve as proof of the overdone idea. 

However, other viewers may argue that M3GAN (2023) differs from other scary doll films because they threw robotics and artificial intelligence into the mix. Despite those arguments, M3GAN’s concept is still on the same premise as dolls that lack robotics and artificial intelligence. First, they’re cute and adorable, then suddenly they are taking down people three times the size of them. Of course, the idea is never going to be “put to rest” but every time it is produced and the box office goes insane, viewers will have that tinge in their heads saying, 

“Again?”