M3GAN (2022) * * *

Directed by:  Gerard Johnstone

Starring:  Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis (Voice of M3GAN), Amie Donald, Ronny Chieng, Jen Van Epps

Those afraid of the possibility of Siri or Alexa growing too smart and powerful will be terrified of M3GAN, a new thriller which works on its intended level.   M3GAN's cultivates a creepy atmosphere with its titular doll (voiced by Jenna Davis and performed by Amie Donald) sitting in rooms listening in on private conversations and observing human behavior.   M3GAN is a prototype AI doll invented by the brilliant Gemma (Williams), whose niece Cady (McGraw) now lives with her following the death of her parents in a car accident.   

M3GAN is introduced simultaneously to Cady as a friend to aid her in her grief and also as the newest invention which will save the toy company Gemma works for.   The glitches are minor at first, but soon grow wilder and out of control.   M3GAN begins as a friend to Cady and soon exhibits homicidal behavior to any of Cady's (and its own) perceived enemies. 

M3GAN, as a doll and movie, surprises us with its intelligence and preys upon paranoid fear of a society growing far too dependent on computers and AI to almost live our lives for us.   The idea of a doll wreaking havoc and killing people dredges up memories and comparisons to Chucky.   M3GAN does provide some of the campy humor and scares like the iconic Chucky, but while Chucky is practically the devil incarnate, M3GAN is a doll which grows sentient as it is exposed to humans more and more.    I believe the Terminator in Terminator 2: Judgment Day warned that such a thing could happen to him.   

What can I say about M3GAN beyond the fact that it is silly by nature.   The sight of seeing our heroes creeping around a dark house trying to avoid the now serial-killerish M3GAN evokes memories of our favorite horror films, and the introduction of another earlier robot which Gemma abandoned work on years earlier is not merely foreshadowing but a showdown which had to happen.   If it didn't, I would've been sorely disappointed.