Developed through the use of animatronics, puppetry, CGI, and actress Amie Donald, M3GAN showcases a cutting-edge, blond-haired doll with a snarky attitude and killer protective instincts, making her equally hilarious and unnerving. 

M3GAN offers a fresh outlook on usual sadistic doll movies. It doesn’t stray away from gore, yet does it in a satirical way that will have you questioning whether this movie was made purely as a mockery of modern horror films.

Toy designer and robotics engineer Gemma (played by Allison Williams) takes on the struggling task of creating a cheaper version of her rival company’s prevalent brand Purrrpetual Pets. She’s also secretly taken on a side assignment of perfecting her new robot with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence for children. 

Early on in Gemma’s project, her traumatized 9-year-old niece Cady (Violet McGraw) gets into a tragic car accident that takes the lives of her parents and leaves Gemma to become her only guardian, though lacking all maternal instincts.

Instead of learning how to parent as anyone else would, Gemma decides that this is the leverage she needs to create her realistic synthetic-skinned doll. She displays a cautionary tale of overreliance on technology, causing the obsolescence of parents through a spiteful child doll.

Gemma “pairs” her new project with Cady and their connection is immediate, one that raises concerns for her therapist. However, before anyone can catch on, Gemma’s aggravating boss Ronny Chieng fast-tracks M3GAN into production (for $10 thousand a pop!) though red flags arise.

The theater I sat in was engulfed in laughter and apologies even in scenes that were meant to be serious carnage, as it was hard to take the script seriously. It resembled the writing of a Disney original movie, leaving out the bloodshed of course. 

For example, following a very gruesome scene, the doll abruptly begins to sing David Guetta’s “Titanium,” leading to audience members clutching their stomachs with laughter, along with a scene of M3GAN doing elegant dances of cartwheels and strutting against a wall, before grabbing a machete and going on her kill streak. 

Overall, this cartoonish movie featuring vicious scenes is a fun watch that will leave you wanting more lighthearted horror movies.