Film Review: M3GAN offers a charming Chucky who is not to be toyed with

This Blumhouse tech-horror sees an innocent-looking doll quickly appoint herself protector against all comers

M3Gan is written by Akela Cooper and James Wan, and directed by Gerard Johnstone

★★★★☆

Humans good, robots bad — such, at least, is the conventional Hollywood wisdom, and M3GAN (15A) has no intention of messing with a popular formula.

Gemma (Allison Williams), a successful designer of robotic toys, plans to up the ante with the Model 3 Generation Android, aka the child-sized M3GAN (Amie Donald), who can respond emotionally to her owner.

When Gemma’s sister is killed in a car crash, and Gemma adopts her nine-year-old niece Cady (Violet McGraw), Cady quickly bonds with M3GAN, who becomes not only her favourite toy but also her best friend and surrogate parent. What could possibly go wrong?

Written by Akela Cooper and James Wan, and directed by Gerard Johnstone, this Blumhouse tech-horror offers a charming Chucky whose affections are not to be toyed with, as the innocent-looking doll quickly appoints herself Cady’s protector against all comers, up to and including Gemma herself.

The storyline doesn’t add much that’s new to the idea that an unregulated artificial intelligence is a very bad idea (Gemma, despite being an expert programmer and owning a host of collectible robot-style toys, appears never to have watched 2001: A Space Odyssey or Blade Runner), but there’s a pleasing disconnect between the seemingly ingenuous appearance of M3GAN and her malign intentions, even if her increasingly sinister behaviour is predicated on keeping the traumatised Cady safe from further harm.

(cinema release)