News on Netflix: Watch out for this doll, it might give you nightmares

Attention horror fans. Netflix has just added M3gan to its catalog, a low-budget horror film that will scare audiences when it hits theaters in late 2022. If you missed this phenomenon, this is your chance to check it out. Look and get to know him.

M3GAN is a cyber-doll whose artificial intelligence is programmed to be the ideal companion for children and the most reliable ally for parents. Created by Gemma (Alison Williams), a brilliant roboticist for a toy company, M3GAN can listen, observe and learn, acting as a friend, teacher, companion and protector of a child.

When Gemma is suddenly put in charge of her 8-year-old niece, Caddy, whose parents have died suddenly, she is completely unprepared for her role. Overwhelmed and under pressure at work, she decides to connect the still-developing M3GAN prototype to a little girl in a desperate attempt to solve her problems on both fronts. A decision that will lead to dire consequences.

A good surprise for 2022

Produced by Jason Blum on a shoestring budget of $12 million, M3gan still produced a pleasant surprise at the US box office, earning 70 million for Universal. Especially since the killer doll faced a strong competitor – James Cameron’s Avatar 2.

But he still managed to exist with this juggernaut. It seems that the audience was interested in the story of this little android with a thirst for blood. It must be said that this is not a mix that we rarely see in horror cinema, as director Gerard Johnston told us in an interview:

“The original idea came from James Wan, who is credited with many horror films, including the series about the evil Annabelle doll. This time he wanted to move the cursor forward a bit by mixing the concept with the Terminator. Therefore, M3GAN is a kind of mini-terminator that turns completely violent.

Speaking of violence, M3gan is “only” off-limits to children under 12, but it was originally meant to be more painful (read, with more deaths). The writers will probably go even further in the sequel, which has already been announced and is due to be released in France on January 15, 2025.

The TikTok phenomenon

Johnston’s film was also able to benefit from a free publicity boost thanks to the Tiktok platform. A few days before the film’s release, Universal shared a clip in which we see the cyber-doll doing a few dance moves before grabbing a knife and stalking its victim:

The video, which did not slow down social networks, became a trend in itself on Tiktok, where subscribers had fun reproducing M3gan’s “choreography” to various songs. It is the young dancer Amy Donald who lends her features to the doll in this scene (and in every wide shot of the film). In this case, he wears a mask that was subsequently computer-animated.

M3gan is available on Netflix.