M3GAN Debuts with 97% Score on Rotten Tomatoes

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Image: Universal Pictures

M3GAN appears to be a hit with critics, according to aggregation sites that include Rotten Tomatoes, where the new sci-fi horror thriller about a life-like doll with advanced AI is currently listed with a 97% Tomatometer Score, derived from positive reviews for the film that some reviewers have described as an “instant cult classic” and successful modern-day upgrade of the 1988 classic, Child’s Play.

Image: Rotten Tomatoes

“M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally,” reads a synopsis for the film, which was directed by Gerard Johnstone and co-produced by James Wan, best known for the original Saw (2004) and blockbusters Aquaman and Furious 7.

“Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma (Get Out’s Allison Williams), M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to. When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw, The Haunting of Hill House), Gemma’s unsure and unprepared to be a parent. Under intense pressure at work, Gemma decides to pair her M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems–a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.”

Trailers that Universal Pictures has released for M3GAN would suggest that the doll goes on to kill various people in the feature, which she justifies as part of its protective programming, including acrobatics.

Wan is no stranger to the killer doll genre, having directed Dead Silence in 2007, a horror film that centers around a widower who learns a ventriloquist’s doll may actually be alive.

The 45-year-old filmmaker also produced the Annabelle series, which includes three films so far about the evil doll that was introduced in the original Conjuring film, also directed by Wan, starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.

M3GAN premieres in theaters this Friday, January 6, 2023.

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Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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