Studios are trying to find new ways to tap into what truly scares us as a society, and using Artificial Intelligence and child-like realistic robots is the way they decided to go with M3GAN. While the movie isn’t packed with scares, it relies on the viewer to imagine what life would be like if a robot doll posed as a kids’ toy went too far in protecting who they are “paired” with. Pairing a creepy robot to your child like you put AirPods to your iPhone surely could never go wrong.
I know it is just a film, but M3GAN comes off as an invention that I believe our generation will see in our lifetime. An AI driven doll that can scare us shitless while sitting on its charger in your room watching you while you sleep, and also help our kids learn simple social skills. A big problem with M3GAN was the fact throughout the movie it becomes seemingly obvious she is taking place of the much needed social development that comes with playing with other kids that Cady (Violet McGraw) needed. Gemma (Allison Williams) tries to correct this by having Cady attend some dumb new spoon-fed, one-with-nature, progressive school experience, which just ends up with M3GAN becoming the proud owner of a boy’s left ear before forcing him into traffic like Frogger.
While the friendship between Cady and M3GAN seems beneficial at first for helping her cope with her parents that died in the beginning of the film to kick the film off with some shock factor. Gemma is no parent and feels so driven by data on building toys that she seems to be out of touch with what kids these days even give a fuck about. M3GAN solves Gemma’s issue of having to truly parent as Cary’s guardian, and proves be the only distraction Cady needed after the traumatic event she experienced. But she becomes so “paired” with M3GAN that she evolves into a little brat that even ends up threatening her therapist with scissors and slapping her aunt, just because they took her “toy” from her.
As promised though, we get malicious carnage by an AI robot throughout. M3GAN also kills a dog, kills the neighbor, the tech mogul of the company trying to benefit financially by selling M3GAN, and harms many more. The mimicking of voices she uses is one of the creepiest features that really could fuck with your head if you have this murderous doll producing voices of people that aren’t even present to manipulate you. The toy becoming a murder doll is what all of us fear for when this time actually comes that these “toys” are on the market to buy in our real lives. However, I did greatly enjoy someone being stabbed with a paper trimmer after M3GAN threw out her best imitation of a tik tok dance, even if I’m terrified that this will one day be a real crime we read about on Twitter.
All this to say that M3GAN wasn’t the scariest film by any means, but the possibility of M3GAN being a real aspect of our lives one day is horrifying. Allison Williams is the high point in this film to me as she plays her character perfectly and you can feel the struggle she is going through taking over as guardian and then trying to right her wrongs. Some people may love the idea of having a M3GAN though and marvel at the idea of their kid having a life-like robot friend to hang out with instead of actually going and trying to make friends with real kids. Some may default to robots for their love-life, which could go in a million different ways of disaster. I’ll let your imagination see what possible issues could arise with a romantic relationship with an AI Robot that “pairs” with you. Whether it be sexual injuries, or the obvious “AI robot turned crazy girlfriend that won’t logically let you break up with her after being paired.”
– C. A. Roethle
The Cinema Speakeasy Theatre Room 
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