M3GAN

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A state-of-the art creation, an AI replica of a human girl, soon becomes a threat that’s impossible to stop in this satirical chiller.

Gemma (Allison Williams), a talented robotics engineer who makes intricately designed playthings for a toy company, is intent on creating something more ambitious. Her dreams are realised with M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android, played with sinister charm by a CGI-enhanced Amie Donald), an AI replicant, whose ability to learn outpaces any human. At first, M3GAN is a fun, if slyly sarcastic companion (voiced to perfection by Jenna Davis) to Gemma’s niece Cady. The girl recently lost her parents in a car accident and Gemma’s inability to relate to her results in the increasing bond between girl and android. But as M3GAN learns more of the world around her, picking up a few fighting tips along the way, she becomes a terrifying and seemingly unstoppable force of nature. Imagine Shirley Temple crossed with the Terminator, with the temperament of Chucky thrown in for good measure…

Gerard Johnstone’s film, an international sleeper hit, is sly enough to understand the absurdity of its set-up, but that never prevents us from revelling in the thrill of M3GAN gradually gaining control of the world she surveys. But the film is also knowingly funny, sharply critiquing a society intent on automating everything. ‘Is this the future you really want?’, M3GAN appears to be asking us, as she rampages through all in her wake.