As a horror movie, "M3GAN" succeeds in doing what it needs to, but it makes a mistake.

 

The most terrifying scene in "M3GAN," the newest horror movie from Gerard Johnstone, occurs early. It originates from Gemma (Allison Williams), the company's main roboticist, and to yet, its most popular product has been "PurRpetual Pets," a line of pet-like robots controlled by tablets and artificial intelligence.

The next significant product for the company, the title character, a childlike doll robot, has been developed using the technology of the pet robots, Gemma nonchalantly claims.

Nothing major, right? It's just a passing comment; if you let your focus stray, you'll miss it. However, a listening device included in all PurRpetual Pets that tracks children's conversational habits served as a foundation for some of the doll's AI.

Her CEO (Ronny Chieng) says, "I didn't hear that!" and his response is rather standard: Nobody genuinely cares how much our smart devices and personal assistants are paying attention, monitoring, and responding. And when it comes to the perils of AI, we prefer to picture the fanciful, bloody catastrophes of a tale like this one to the minor moral and personal sacrifices we make every day.

None of this detracts from "M3GAN's" basic pleasures, a film that is much better than its PG-13 rating and early-January release date. A PG-13 designation is typically a negative indicator for horror films, albeit this one ghoulishly strains the limits of that standard. The first month of the calendar year is traditionally the dump for the studio slate's most red-headed stepchildren. Its incredibly successful and instantly viral trailer appears to reveal every detail of the plot, but what it leaves out is the film's deliciously offbeat tone, which sits at an odd intersection of slasher horror and self-aware humor. It's chock full of hilarious pictures, catchy one-liners, and warm winks, and it's designed to go viral. The audience had a blast, and the filmmakers are quite skilled.