Universal has released a new and frighteningly good trailer for the puppet horror “M3GAN”. Fans of Chucky and Annabelle will get their money’s worth.
Somehow you can’t help but believe that the Malaysian-born filmmaker James Wan as a director and producer has a very special soft spot for creepy dolls. Already in his acclaimed debut “Saw” he introduced a creepy puppet with Billy, but here it still served as a means to an end.
Billy was the name of the most important of a whole horde of dolls owned by a deceased ventriloquist in Wan’s next horror film “Dead Silence”. Wan created the best-known scary doll to date with Annabelle, who first appeared in the masterpiece “The Conjuring” and has since been allowed to wreak havoc in three of her own horror films.
All these films can safely be seen as finger exercises on what Wan is now unleashing on the audience. “M3GAN” takes the puppet horror subgenre to a whole new level. The first teaser trailer made that clear. The new trailer shows how scary the new horror doll really is. With M3GAN you should definitely not mess it up. She doesn’t do things by halves:
The horror doll in Wan’s new work is absolutely terrifying, like Elizabeth Olsen, Esther from Orphan and Annabelle thrown in a pot and stirred together. The result is likely to cause many a nightmare. The dance scene is only a small foretaste. Of course, even killer doll Chucky stinks against this highly developed robot. It is neither as agile, nor as big, as strong, nor as intelligent as the three-generation Android model, or M3GAN for short. And the high-tech doll doesn’t just use her skills for good.
“M3GAN”: A danger that doesn’t seem all that unrealistic
Robotics engineer Gemma (Allison Williams) actually has her hands full with her project M3GAN, a sophisticated high-tech doll intended to serve as a best friend for children and an ally to carry out the will of their parents. But then she unexpectedly becomes the guardian of her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) when her parents die. To help Cady deal with her grief and to keep an eye on her, Gemma brings M3GAN to her house.
But the initially innocent friendship between Cady and the android, equipped with enormous artificial intelligence, soon becomes bloody serious when the latter implements her directive to protect Cady at all costs by any means necessary. And this danger posed by artificial intelligence is not that far off the mark, at least not as far off as Chucky.
James Wan co-wrote the script with Akela Cooper (“Malignant”) and served as producer alongside Jason Blum (“Get Out”) for the Blumhouse-Universal collaboration. He commissioned Gerard Johnstone to direct it, who staged a real scary insider tip with “Housebound” in 2014 and which Prime subscribers can stream at no additional cost.
Joining Allison Williams and Violet McGraw are Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Arlo Green, Jen Van Epps and Jenna Davis as M3GAN’s US voice. “M3GAN” will start in cinemas in Germany on January 12, 2023. Horror fans have a first treat to look forward to in the new year.
