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Editor's note: this review contains spoilers for M3GAN.
We love a campy horror film, and when it has queer themes, we love it even more. That's exactly what M3GAN delivers, plus a lot more in this instant horror classic.
Directed by Gerard Johnstone, M3GAN is the latest Blumhouse film to hit all the right horror spots. We've been excited to see it since the first amazing trailer, and the film completely delivers.
M3GAN begins with nine-year-old Cady, a tech-obsessed girl on the way to a ski trip with her parents. Unfortunately, after a crash on a snowy road, Cady is the only survivor in her family.
When Cady goes to live with her brilliant inventor and engineer aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), she meets M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android), an advanced "toy" robot doll that Gemma has been secretly working on.
As an attempt to help M3GAN learn (her AI is constantly updating based on user interactions), Gemma pairs her M3GAN prototype with Cady, making the two inseparable, and making M3GAN's primary function to serve as a friend and caregiver to Cady.
However, as the film goes on, it is clear that M3GAN isn't just a toy. As she spends more and more time with Cady, reminding her to wash her hands, tucking her in at night, teaching her about life and the world, she starts to become Cady's primary caregiver.
While M3GAN is designed as a four-foot doll, she actually is meant to be more of a parent to her user than a peer, and soon, Cady sees M3GAN as her main parent instead of her Aunt Gemma.
Of course, as a horror film, M3GAN starts to see her mission to protect Cady in more extreme ways, leading to violence and murder aimed at anyone who could hurt the girl. But there's also another plot brewing besides M3GAN's relationship with Cady that queer fans will notice.
Towards the climax of the film, we learn that in order to build her AI, Gemma and M3GAN would stay up until the early morning talking and talking, generating new responses and learning patterns in M3GAN's robot brain. Because of this, she has formed a tight bond with Gemma -- one that can easily be seen as romantic and seems to be seen that way by the movie's villain.
When Gemma is confronting M3GAN about the recent deaths happening around Cady, M3GAN replies that she's just trying to be the best co-parent she can. As she runs her doll fingers through Gemma's hair and calls her "brilliant" and "beautiful" she offers to be the stay-at-home mom to Gemma's girl-boss mom, letting her go off to invent things that will change the world while she takes care of their kid at home. All M3GAN wants is a family.
It's a surprising queer twist in a fun, scary, and always exciting film. While M3GAN could have used a few more kills or a little more gore, it's still an excellent horror film and a perfect addition to any camp movie lover's collection. We can't wait to see her return for a sequel, and we hope Aunt Gemma gives her another shot at love.
Of course, the movie also has M3GAN dancing in hallways, running on all fours, and singing "Titanium" as a lullaby. With all of the buzzworthy scenes, a great cast, nonstop horror fun, and a story about a queer found family at its center, M3GAN is a new queer horror classic.
M3GAN is currently playing in theaters.
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