As I type this, the horror hit M3gan has taken over $176 million around the world from its theatrical run. That’s from a budget of around $12 million. Phenomenal numbers and it is sure to have an even bigger reach on the home formats where an even gorier unseen version is offered alongside the original theatrical movie.
The story revolves around eight-year-old Cady (Violet McGraw) who sadly loses her parents in a car accident in the opening moments of the film. Cady survives the accident and is sent to her aunt Gemma’s (Allison Williams) to live. Gemma works for a toy company and despite success with an interactive toy, which her niece adores, another company has produced a rival product for a fraction of the price. Tasked with coming up with a new idea, Gemma invents the M3gan of the title, a realistic, life-size doll that is paired with Cady. M3gan is a doll that interacts, shares emotion, and becomes Cady’s new best friend, though behind the cute smile, piercing eyes, and long blonde hair, something a little more sinister exists.
It’s easy to see the appeal of the movie. Hardly reinventing the genre, with elements of Child’s Play and yes, even hints of Frankenstein in the mix, M3gan is exactly the film you might expect it to be. With frequent kills and tons of peril, not to mention a lot of gore, the film is also lots of fun. It hurtles toward a climax that is a little bit predictable, but far from unrewarding. The theatrical version clocks in at a swift 102 minutes so doesn’t overstay its welcome in the slightest. Clearly a social commentary modern parenting, on how AI is slowly taking over our lives and the influence it has on the younger generation, as well as corporate profits being put before social wellbeing, this is,though, more than anything, a great time at the movies and never takes itself too seriously.
I’m not sure if this is up to repeat viewings, mosly an enjoyable, disposal affair, but wih sequels already planned, it may be something you may revisit and both versions are more than worth checking out – even if they are a similar running time.- you just get a lot more gore in certain scenes.
Related: M3gan review [theatrical]
Bonus features are essentially just three short making-of featurettes, all around the five-minute mark in length. There is ‘A New Vision of Horror’ which features interviews with all of the main players and creatives behind the camera, including Jason Blum, James Wan and director Gerard Johnstone, among others. This one rattles through the elements of production though is over all too quickly. The second featurette is titled ‘Bringing Life to M3GAN’ which is exactly what it says on the tine, and the last one is ‘Getting Hacked’ which looks at the stunts behind the character and the prosthetics used during production. Just under fifteen minutes of bonus stuff that is decent, but all too brief.
M3gan is available on DIGITAL DOWNLOAD APRIL 3, 2023 and BLU-RAYTM AND DVD from April 17. 2023
M3gan
Summary
Buy the film for the movie itself – it is an absolute blast – rather than the lackluster special stuff, of which there are only a few behind the scenes featurettes, which is a little disappointing for such a big release.
