James Wan returned to his horror roots last year with the absolutely bonkers Malignant. Written by Akela Cooper (Luke Cage, Hellfest) and directed by Wan, Malignant performed moderately at the box office but was a huge hit on streaming. The film also featured one of the craziest plot twists ever.
Akela Cooper and James Wan now look to repeat the feat with the upcoming horror film M3GAN. Wan is producing M3GAN, with Cooper handling the scripting duties. New Zealand filmmaker Gerard Johnstone, who is no stranger to blending horror and ludicrousness, is directing M3GAN. Johnstone debuted in 2014 with the acclaimed horror-comedy Housebound.
M3GAN is set to premiere in theaters early next year, and the promotional tour seems to have commenced. The official trailer for M3GAN premiered last month and instantly went viral on social media platforms. Netizens have been calling M3GAN the creepiest doll since Chucky, which was one of the inspirations behind it. The M3GAN trailer has since racked up nearly 20 million views on Youtube, just a few million shy of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Wan briefly teased what to expect from M3GAN, and it’s enough to draw any horror fan to the theaters.
"It’s Annabelle meets The Terminator. That [M3GAN’s harmless nature] soon goes off the rails. I’m fascinated by things that are meant to be innocent, but become more… malign."
Cooper also gave some insight into the film and how her childhood fears and the desire to create an iconic monster gave rise to M3GAN.
"My thing was ventriloquist dummies. I saw the Anthony Hopkins movie Magic at a really young age and that cemented the creepiness in my brain. I was a big Child’s Play fan, too. It was always my dream to create an iconic monster of my own."
M3GAN Has Become A Viral Social Media Sensation
The M3GAN trailer ignited memes and social media trends, including a Twitter duel between Chucky and M3GAN. Blumhouse’s Jason Blum, who is producing M3GAN alongside James Wan (Atomic Monster Productions), also dressed up as M3GAN for Halloween, further piquing fans’ interest. However, M3GAN’s rating is a bit of a bummer. The film is rated PG-13, a rarity for a Blumhouse horror movie. It appears M3GAN won’t be as brutal as the trailers indicated. Hopefully, the film will have more in store than gore and violence.
M3GAN stars Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Lori Dungey, Stephane Garneau-Monten, and Jenna Davis. M3GAN will hit theaters on January 6, 2023.
The official plot synopsis for M3GAN reads:
"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. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma, M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes a 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, 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."