Director Gerard Johnstone released a science fiction horror film called “M3GAN” in 2023. 

The creation of “M3GAN” started with a young girl named Cady whose parents were involved in a serious car accident causing her to live with her aunt Gemma. Gemma develops an Model 3 Generative Android also known as “M3GAN” which is a life-sized doll designed to assist parents with their children. M3GAN is taken into the home of Gemma and Cady, making her take Gemma’s place while she is at work. The doll decides she is the official caretaker of Cady, meaning to destroy anyone who hurts or touches her. This ends in a blood fest of Gemma coworkers making Gemma attempt to shut M3GAN down while trying to disfigure her. 

Since “M3GAN” was released, it has gotten most of the attention because of the use of special effects. Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse work at Morot FX Studio where they created the animatronic puppet version of  M3GAN used for close-ups. The animatronic was puppeteered with a variety of techniques such as radio controlled facial expressions. The facial expressions were performed by Morot and Tse while actress Kimberly Crossman and the puppet were used to physically move her head and body. Amie Donald was used mostly for her stunt work for the scenes with physical movement the puppet couldnt do. In post-production, Amie’s performances were enhanced by digital effects by Wētā Workshop to make the movements look more realistic and smoother. 

The plot of “M3GAN” is very detailed and gives an understanding of how kids’ toys can possibly overtake the parents’ role. The movie starts off with a young girl named Cady whose parents died in a car accident leaving her to live with her aunt Gemma.  After her parents death, Cady has become very sad and emotional. During Cady’s depression, Gemma was finishing her work on M3GAN. Once M3GAN was finished, Gemma wanted her and Cady to meet. After they met, Cady became attached to the doll, making M3GAN take over Gemma’s role. Soon after M3GAN decided to take over Gemma’s role, she became very violent towards others, leading Tess and Cole to try to shut M3GAN down. Gemma’s coworkers realize the doll has switched her own software, making her lash out on the company’s workers. This makes M3GAN go to the home to try to find Cady, so she can become her sole parents which makes Gemma try to shut her down. 

The rating of the movie is 7/10. “M3GAN” is recommended to those who enjoy horror films with a new element.