As much as pixar tell us that they are harmless and only come alive to follow us in the car when we move and protect us, It is inevitable to be afraid of our toys when the lights go out. From ‘The Doll’ ‘Stories not to sleep’ up to ‘Puppet master’, ‘Dolls’ or the most modern ‘Annabelle’, the toys that open their eyes to try to kill us are part of the collective imagination. Now, ‘M3gan’ comes to join the same borrowing from here and there but, at the same time, feeling totally original.
This was a triumph
The first few minutes of ‘M3gan’ completely set the tone for what is to follow afterwards. Instead of focusing on a murder, a factory struck by lightning, or a killer creating a robot, we see an ad for adorable eternal kitties that eat thanks to an appThey relieve themselves and speak in a, let’s say, modern way. From the beginning, the film indicates that what we are going to see is suitable for teenagers, but it will have a bad milk that will fly over it continuously.
The Blumhouse tape drinks a lot from three basic references: the personality of chuckythe irony of GLaDOS (the antagonist of the fabulous ‘Portal’) and the anti-pantalism of the always influential ‘black mirror’. You’ve seen the cocktail that comes out before, and you can settle the basic lines that the film will follow from the beginning (from which it will not distance itself at any time), but the important thing, once again, is not the what, but the how.
‘M3gan’ is not a horror movie, or at least not to use: yes, it has a doll with murderous desires, but it is so concerned with being light that becomes a hilarious comedy in which, by the way, there is the occasional murder something lacking in originality and gore. If you go to the movies willing to scare yourself, you’re going to be deeply disappointed. However, If you go with an open mind, you are before a not inconsiderable mix of genres that will leave you satisfied.
I’m making a note here: Huge Success
‘M3gan’ Biggest Flaw Is Not Playing Adult Horror-Comedy: all the murders take place off-screen and we see practically nothing of them, with some less bloody and cruel exceptions. By focusing on humor, the film evades any pretense of terror., something that plays slightly against him. Trying to get more into it with teenagers, she paradoxically loses what interests an audience full of hormones the most: scares.
In return, the film, directed by Gerard Johnston who has already tried his luck in the horror comedy ‘Housebound’, shows a unique tone and a different approach to the world of killer dolls: M3gan does not have the soul of a psychopath inside, nor does he intend to kill everyone for good. In fact, has more in common with Asimov’s robots than with a typical Slappy: His protection orders are clear and he intends to follow them to the last consequences.
The film evades an insane atmosphere typical of horror films to turn it into an industrial, capitalist one, more concerned with the data for the semester and for finishing the modeling on time than for the possible immorality of an android girl who learns as she is used and whose actions are unpredictable. Horror cinema, since Charlie Brooker, put aside the ancient curses to focus on the terror of the immediate future. The little screen, what would our parents say.
And while you’re dying I’ll be still alive
The design of the assassin android is an absolute success: no one would be surprised to see it in the near future as an evolution of voice assistants. And it is that, deep down, M3gan is nothing more than that, only with improved artificial intelligence, permanently connected to the Internet and with the ability to make their own decisions. Even if those decisions are to put the knife to an enemy of its main user.
After making the best horror comedies of the decade (the fabulous ‘Happy death day’ and its incredible sequel), Blumhouse has tried to follow the thread of mixing a genre ousted by critics with another ignored by the public.. The result is hilarious: the film’s extremely black sense of humor has not been present in such a blunt and shameless way for a long time. Because, above all, ‘M3gan’ is a film that knows it has nothing to lose and she decides to be herself from beginning to end, without concessions to the mainstream.
Since its inception, more typical of a channel like Boinguntil a hilarious final battle, the film has no problem showing all its cards and taking its proposal to the limit. It’s not just Chucky’s jokes: everyone here, from the police to the gossipy neighbor, has moments of comedy that will only work if you’re willing to accept them. The big problem for ‘M3gan’ is going to be finding its audiencesomething that seems difficult if, through the promotional material, you think that you are going to see a new ‘Annabelle’ and that you will probably come out confused and repeating the well-known “It’s more than scary, it makes you laugh” without wanting to realize that, indeed, it is what what should happen: after all, it is a comedy.
‘M3gan’: between Chucky and GLaDOS, the Blumhouse film hits the mark as it mixes horror and comedy