Warning: This post contains major spoilers for M3GAN
M3GAN may be a horror film, but it also has a sense of humor — intentional or not. Directed by Gerard Johnstone from a screenplay by Akela Cooper, who came up with the story with James Wan, M3GAN is gearing up to be the next scary doll icon after Chucky.
M3GAN thrilled audiences and critics alike, receiving an overall positive reception from the latter. The horror film takes a different route than its genre predecessors, leaning into its sense of fun and camp. Whereas other horrors can be very dramatic and ramp up the antagonist’s reign of terror, M3GAN balances its chilling moments with wit and humor. Is the horror film meant to be so funny? In an interview with Screen Rant, Johnstone said that certain bits are unintentionally comedic, but the filmmaker leaned into it. And it works for multiple reasons.
M3GAN’s Comedy Is Very Self-Aware
With M3GAN’s humor, the audience is never laughing at the horror film and some of the characters’ antics, but with it. To that end, M3GAN’s comedy is self-aware — the film knows when to lean into certain moments that result in a chuckle or two before getting back to business. The horror film’s humor isn’t there because it’s bad. Rather, M3GAN is purposefully exaggerative. M3GAN’s dance scene is a perfect instance of this: The AI doll busts out in a dance move or two, twirling, doing a fancy cartwheel, and it’s funny, but the point is to distract David, Gemma’s boss, from noticing her next move.
When M3GAN sings, it’s meant to be simultaneously unsettling and comedic. Ultimately, M3GAN’s comedy, though only occasionally intentional, works because it’s such a campy horror. The film understands that, and Johnstone leans into the humor without sidelining the emotional payoff or the unnerving moments present throughout. The audience has a lot of fun with M3GAN’s self-aware comedy while still taking the film seriously. The horror film is able to pull off this feat because it doesn’t deny what it is or trying to be, and dares to step outside the horror lines to establish its funny campiness.
M3GAN Being Funny Is Better Than It Just Being Full Horror
M3GAN is about the dangers of AI and dependence on technology in lieu of human connection. For the film to properly work, it needed to be funny and not just a full horror, or else it risked taking itself way too seriously and undermining its entire narrative. What’s more, horror films can be incredibly intense and scary, but M3GAN provides some levity in the darkness of its horror, and this allows it to stand out within the horror genre.
M3GAN being an outright horror could have been detrimental to the story, and the result might have been too conventional to be memorable. The horror film could have also been compared to such films like Annabelle, which gets very dark. Its comedy is one of M3GAN’s core strengths, and it provides a sense of equilibrium between two wildly different genres. The horror film’s sense of humor elevates its narrative and provides an avenue for M3GAN to critique society’s overreliance on technology without going overboard on the terror of it all. M3GAN is a balancing act, and its use of comedy truly pays off, making the horror film an instant classic.
