“M3gan,” in the simplest words, is a “Chucky” rip-off set in the 21st century. It follows the story of an orphaned girl whose parents were killed in a head-on collision with a truck. She moves in with her aunt, Gemma (Allison Williams), who happens to be a toy maker that is working on this lifelike robot doll to help parents raise their kids. What Gemma didn’t expect is that M3gan was going to grow sentient and go on a murder rampage.

When my friend and I went to see “M3gan” in theaters, I expected it to be a creepy haunting movie about a killer doll, but instead, we got to witness the most movie-Esq movie in film history. This movie was packed full of surprises, some of which worked with the film and others that did not. One of those surprises is that even though the movie had only been out for a very short amount of time, the theater was almost empty except for us and a few other teenagers. To be honest, this movie didn’t disappoint, but it also didn’t astound me. It was mediocre and I’m having a hard time understanding why everyone loved it so much.

The first thing I noticed was that the movie was strangely… funny? I’m fairly certain that the movie was intended to be a horror/thriller, so why was I laughing so much? Afterward, I did some research and apparently, some people have been referring to it as a horror-comedy, however, I can’t find any direct sources or quotes from the actual movie promotion that allude to that. Also, the kind of humor present in the movie didn’t seem like the movie really tried to put them in there.

One of the funniest parts was when Megan used a recording of another character’s voice to lure the person into a trap (to kill them). This felt like it was supposed to be some scary creepy strange scene, but the only thing I noticed was how stupid the voice she made sounded. It almost seems like they made the movie seriously and then when people found it funny, they backtracked and pretended that that was what they intended the whole time.

Speaking of the neighbor, the other characters in the movie were shockingly poorly written compared to the main characters. They all just served a purpose and then left, adding nothing to the actual plot. Of course, some people might claim that that’s what background characters serve to do, but even Gemma’s boss (who actually DID have something to contribute to the plot) was shallow and his motivations didn’t really make sense. He would just walk in and say some mumbo jumbo ‘we don’t have the money’ evil boss stuff and then dip.

The movie was fun, but I don’t think I would rewatch it.  It has little potential for a sequel because the way they set up the cliffhanger was so lame and stereotypical. If they had committed to the horror a little more, I think it would’ve been better, but then again, the whole scary killer doll movie trope is so played out. “M3gan” technically hit every plot point a movie should, but if this is indicative of how horror as a genre is progressing, then I am not looking forward to it.