'M3GAN' Trailer

Though it features a creepy doll with murderous tendencies, new thriller ‘M3GAN’ is not related to the ‘Conjuring’ franchise except that they share a producer in James Wan.

We can imagine, though, that Annabelle and M3GAN could be first cousins – M3GAN’s chattier, but bad things happen around them both.

This latest horror, though, comes via Wan’s Atomic Monster company working with Blumhouse.

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 (Allison Williams, who co-starred in ‘Get Out’ for Blumhouse and is here an executive producer in addition to taking the lead), M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to.

M3GAN and Cady (Violet McGraw) in 'M3GAN,' directed by Gerard Johnstone.

When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw, no stranger to terror herself after Netflix’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House’), 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.

The trailer lays out what that means – M3GAN quickly becomes best friends with Cady, setting up an easy rapport. But when anyone threatens, or so much as attempts to correct her pal, she’s quick to respond.

‘That’s not too worrying, though,’ we can hear you pondering. ‘Surely you can just shut the doll down?’ Which leads us to think you’ve never watched a film about creepy androids or robots before.

Our solution would be to get her a date with Chucky… Though combining those two would probably be a bad idea anyway.

Director Gerard Johnstone on the set of 'M3GAN.'

Gerald Johnstone, who made 2014 horror comedy ‘Housebound’, is in the director’s chair here, working from a script by ‘Malignant’s Akela Cooper, who came up with the story alongside Wan.

The film also stars Ronny Chieng (‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’), Brian Jordan Alvarez (‘Will & Grace’), Jen Van Epps (‘Cowboy Bebop’) and Stephane Garneau-Monten (‘Straight Forward’).

Amie Donald, meanwhile, performed M3GAN’s physical movements, which were then augmented with CGI to give the dangerous doll her distinct look.

From the looks of this new footage, Wan, Johnstone and the rest are going for a blend of horror and dark humor – how else do you explain M3GAN’s dance moves. Plus we’re likely going to need some laughs to break up the tension. And Wan has always been able to blend the two.

Plus extra credit for the ironic use of Taylor Swift’s ‘It’s Nice To Have A Friend’ on the trailer’s soundtrack.

No doubt Universal will be hoping this one will spawn a franchise – Wan’s specialty in the horror genre following ‘Saw’, ‘Insidious’ and ‘The Conjuring’, which all have multiple installments.

‘M3GAN’ will be giving us the creeps in theaters from January 13th next year.