‘M3gan (Unrated Version)’ Blu-ray Review
Stars: Allison Williams, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Jen Van Epps, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Lori Dungey | Written by Akela Cooper | Directed by Gerard Johnstone
When released at the cinema earlier this year, M3gan was certainly promoted perfectly. The M3gan ‘dance’ featured in the trailer became a bit of a viral hit, and alongside mainly positive reviews, helped the movie make over $175 million at the box office – a huge profit. Now releasing on digital and Blu-ray is a new unrated version.
The story is pretty basic but that’s all it needs to be. A toy company builds a life-like doll that is sold to be a child’s friend as much as it is their toy. But before it is even officially released on the market, the BETA version of the doll is used by the designer’s niece and it soon starts to take on a life of its own.
I guess that there’s always going to be an obvious comparison when it comes to M3gan, and that’s the most popular witty horror doll Chucky. But I do think it’s a fair comparison at times. When M3gan is at her most evil and with the odd threatening line, there are definite Chucky vibes and that’s no bad thing at all. M3gan’s line delivery is perfect and a big part of why the character works so well.
Some genre fans might be a little bit disappointed at the number of kills and action. It takes a while to get going on that aspect but when the death scenes do come, not only are they worth the wait but there is plenty of them by the end run time. Body parts are ripped off, blood is splattered across walls and characters are violently attacked.
Outside of the horror, I thought the story surrounding the niece and her parents, gave the film plenty of heart and added a bit more depth to the characters. It could have been a much more throw-away horror movie than it actually was.
The two lead performances from the young girl (Violet McGaw; The Haunting of Hill House) and her aunt (Allison Williams; Get Out) were very good. It’s a pretty stereotypical relationship – a family member ‘forced’ into becoming a parent and the child rejecting them – doesn’t feel as well-trodden and unoriginal as it could have been. The M3gan doll and its relationship with the child become a huge reason for this. Both McGaw and Williams are impressive in their roles.
The differences between this unrated version and the original release aren’t huge. There’s quite a bit more swearing. And as previously mentioned, this actually gives M3gan a more aggressive, Chucky-like edge to her. While unsurprisingly there’s some more blood and gore too. Two key moments get more gore. A bully gets his comeuppance from M3gan – something that happened off-screen in the cinema release – it’s a really fun scene too. And the other scene is inside the Funki offices in which we see more blood and gore when workers are attacked by M3gan. Maybe not a whole lot but they certainly add things that horror fans will be happy with.
I enjoyed M3gan much more than I expected too. I’m almost certain we’ll get a sequel, and on this showing, it’s clear there’s room for more than just Chucky in this horror universe. Maybe it’s not quite ‘move over Chucky’ but M3gan is a massively entertaining killer doll flick.
**** 4/5
M3gan is released on DVD and Blu-ray today. courtesy of Universal Pictures.
