As the famous saying mostly utilized when discussing the subject of friendship goes, “people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime – while others are built to give you companionship and then attempt to violently murder you and everyone you love” – or at least this is what M3GAN would lead you to believe. The most recent attempt at a forcible cult classic comes on behalf of director Gerard Johnstone (whose previous film Housebound was not only one of the greatest debuts of the past decade, but also a subversive horror film that broke all the rules of the genre), who works closely with screenwriters Akela Cooper and horror maestro James Wan to tell the story of a lonely orphaned girl that is given a new companion in the form of the Model 3 Generative Android (or M3GAN for short), a highly-advanced artificially intelligent device that looks and sounds like a doll, but does so much more, which the young girl and her guardian (who also happens to be the creator of M3GAN, and thus pays the consequences when it is made obvious that she has made a fatal error in judgement) learn the hard way. A deliriously entertaining and very odd film that knows exactly what it wanted to be, M3GAN  is truly a bizarre experiment that is difficult to not thoroughly adore, granted we are able to surrender to the pure insanity that inspired the film, which is very easy when it is constructed along very well-defined narrative boundaries, almost as if it is trying to fit perfectly into the broader category that falls under the artistic jurisdiction of Jason Blum, who views himself as something of a renaissance man of contemporary horror. It is about as entertaining as you’d expect from the marketing that has surrounded this film, which was clearly playing to those members of the audience who have a penchant for the absurd and deranged, but not to the point where they want to venture too far off the beaten path, with horror being perhaps the only genre where playing it safe can actually be a merit for the viewer, since one can never know quite what to expect on the other side of even the most slightly demented horror stories.

While watching M3GAN, the viewer will likely be struck by the very clear feeling that they have seen this film before, at least partially. This is not a case of earnest prognostication or artistic déjà vu, but rather drawn from the fact that this is a film assembled from the fragments of over half a century of horror, the director and screenwriters seemingly cobbling together different elements that remind us of a very specific style of horror, that which uses innocence and childlike naivete as a source of unhinged horror. The theme of trauma reminds us of Don’t Look Now, and the score often hearkens back to the iconic main theme of Rosemary’s Baby, two of the greatest horror films ever made, and also ones that focus on family, specifically in themes surrounding to children and their families in different ways. However, the broadest comparison is probably Child’s Play, which introduced us to the character of Chucky, who has remained relevant, holding more cultural cache than the majority of more traditional horror villains. M3GAN often plays like a version of the same story, just made for the current generation, those whose lives are dictated by screens and artificial intelligence, which many view as being positive technological developments, ignoring the darker consequences that others frequently emphasize. This is a film built from an assemblage of other ideas that have proven to be successful, which is par for the course for the current generation of mainstream horror, which is often just constructed from a few elements that have been tried and tested, and will entertain audiences for the required time and not a moment longer. Unfortunately, this does mean that M3GAN is not as memorable as it perhaps could have been, which partially defeats the purpose, since this was clearly designed to be a film that doesn’t blend into the general homogenous mass that is contemporary mainstream horror, but it doesn’t have too much outside of a fun concept to keep it in our memory, which is an unfortunate but unsurprising development when we consider how this is a clear case of a bold idea not being fully-realized in its execution.

The era where entire franchises could be built on horror villains alone seems to be a remnant of the past, with the development of broader shared universes making it seem less likely that we are going to see too many characters take on a second life in the same way as the likes of Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, especially since horror has become less about mindless fun, and more about infusing the stories with deeper themes, whether it be identity, trauma or simply the fact that the world is hopelessly bleak in ways that many of us may struggle to accept. However, the character of M3GAN feels like she has the potential to become quite iconic, granted they continue to use her well, structuring stories around the character that don’t add depth, but rather allow her to continue a reign of terror, which seems to be hinted at towards the end of the film (although not explicitly – there are few more uncomfortable experiences than seeing a film that was clearly setting itself up to have sequels that never manifest due to either poor review or financial constraints that prevent them from happening, which occurs far more frequently than many would like to admit), and which may just work with the right approach. The film very smartly doesn’t exhaust the potential they had with M3GAN as a character, making her a memorable villain, but using her sparingly, ideally to leave some room for further stories that utilize the character, or those similar to her. It’s obviously difficult to know where the next chapter of this story will lead (but based on what has been announced recently, it’s certain we haven’t seen the last of this demented creation), and it is actually quite exciting to see the birth of a potentially iconic villain – and credit must go to the team behind the creation of M3GAN, which includes Amie Donald and Jenna Davis, who portrays the character physically and vocally respectively, and the team of puppeteers that also bring her to life – throughout the film, the fact that it is difficult to tell whether she is played by an actual actress or is merely a construction formed from CGI and clever puppetry is a credit to this film, and even now, it isn’t particularly obvious how they achieved some of these aspects of the character, which is only an additional credit to an already well-regarded and oddly positively received film.

As is often the case with this sub-category of intentionally absurd horror, the viewer needs to know what to expect when venturing into the world of M3GAN, which is not a film that is all that complex, but still requires some kind of mental preparation, not for the sake of bracing for the terror or unhinged madness that inspires the film (it is certainly not scary in any traditional sense, function more as a disquieting and creepy work), but rather to embrace the sheer stupidity that inspires most of the film. The only difference here is that everything feels very measured – this is a film that seems to be actively aiming to earn the label of being a cult classic, which is obviously the complete antithesis to how a film achieves such a reputation. It’s rare to find a film that attains this reputation where it came about deliberately, which is one of the few flaws of the film, or least those who were put in charge of drawing audiences towards it. However, this doesn’t distract from the fact that this is a film that is intending to be entertaining long before it is terrifying – it is far more of a comedy than a horror, and while there are an abundance of genuinely unnerving moments, they’re not so vital to the narrative that we find ourselves drawn away from the more mindlessly fun aspects to focus on the horror, which becomes supplementary. A dancing doll with a penchant for cold-blooded murder is absurd enough on its own, it didn’t need too much more to actually be effective, which seems to be the principle Johnstone was working on when crafting this film. It pitches the humour at the appropriate level – not every scene is particularly funny, but there is an undercurrent of subversion that we find in every moment that points us towards the more peculiar aspects, which makes for a terrific film that doesn’t take itself seriously, which is a key component to what is already a very successful film.

It’s not very clear where the character of M3GAN fits into the adage of “new friends silver, old friends gold” – perhaps we can add a third category, that which refers to artificial friends as titanium (referenced by the bizarre use of Sia’s “Titanium” at a crucial moment in the film), but what is very obvious is that this one of the year’s more peculiar films, and also one of its most entertaining. It’s difficult to imagine M3GAN as a straightforward, dramatic horror, but there is certainly an alternative version of this story that may take a more sombre and serious approach, at the expense of losing the only aspect that is truly captivating, which is the off-the-wall humour that may be deliberate (and thus disqualifies it from the cherished sub-genre of the unintentionally funny horror film), but is still very much worth our time. There is a lot of potential left with this character, and it is certainly going to be intriguing to see what the future holds, whether it will continue to explore the importance of limiting how far we allow technology to go before it takes over our lives with fatal consequences, or if it will go in other directions, which is just as likely, since it clearly has wide aspirations. Ultimately, M3GAN is a film that was made to go viral – the brief scenes that have pervaded social media as a result of an aggressive but successful marketing campaign are primarily what has driven audiences to give the film a chance – and while it never lives up to those impossibly high expectations (one of the many dangers that come with promoting a film that is built on the element of surprise), it does at least achieve them with some modicum of respectability and humour, which helps maintain a consistent and interesting atmosphere that may not be as inventive as the film may think it is, but at least offers enough entertaining material to give off the illusion of being unique, which is already half the mission accomplished with such a film, which is far more compelling than it ought to be.