Year: 2022
Country: U.S./New Zealand
Subgenre: Robot Horror (Science Fiction Horror)
Runtime: 112 minutes (both versions)
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Speaking of TickTok dances that have gone viral, the "Wednesday dance" from the series was not the only horror dance to cause a craze on that platform last year. This dance from the robot horror M3GAN also caused quite a stir, though I am pretty sure it didn't as many imitators, as it involves a handless summersault! But, like the dance in 'Wednesday,' this little dance did originate with the actress playing M3gan. Young New Zealander actress (and stunt double!) Amie Donald, who plays the physical M3gan has been an award winning completive dancer since the age of 9! She choreographed the M3gan dance all on her own at the age of 12! That is just one of the many highlights of this recent horror that make a solid "you've gotta see this one!" I admit that when this came out I was one of the eye-rollers out there; "why do we did another killer robot/doll movie??" When I got around to watching it for the first time, I was quickly won over! So much to the point that I told my better half..."man Chucky is gonna be jealous!" The film stars Allison Williams (daughter of Brian Williams; I am sure everyone remembers her from Jordan Peele's Get Out! She has also been in Netflix's Perfection) and Violet McGraw. Williams (also an executive producer on the project), whose character Gemma works as a robotics engineer at a major toy company; suddenly becomes a parent to her young niece Cady (McGraw) when her parents are killed. Gemma is single and is workaholic, not to mention a bit short on the mothering skills. So, of course, she comes up with a robotics "solution." Needless to say, things do not go as planned! Now, I have read a number of reviews from supposed "horror nuts" who say this is NOT a horror film because it lacks gore. Balderdash! I think that most of them are just upset (and let down) because it was co-written by James Wan--the modern splatter king! Truth is, not all horror needs to be like a Saw movie (I mean, Wan's Conjuring franchise proves that). The idea from the beginning was to make a solid robot gone wrong film with a PG-13 rating. The director here is New Zealand's Gerard Johnstone. He is responsible for one the only haunted house comedies with real scares that I can think of: 2014's Housebound. At some point, everyone agreed that an "unrated" version of the film as an alternative could be fun. Usually these kinds of film edits work the other way around. Directors, writers, and some producers are told to make cuts and edits to get a lower MPAA rating. In this case, the PG-13 target was the goal by all to begin with. So my advice, if you haven't already seen this, is to watch the PG-13 version first. Back that up with the unrated version some time later. They are both the same length, and the only material changes are in the use of "cuss words." I found it to be a lot of fun watching the film this way--you know what's coming and it's bit on the hilarious side. Is this a gore fest? No. Is it a horror film. Yes. And one that's poised to give us a brand new horror icon to boot.
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