The Second “M3GAN” Trailer Introduces You to James Wan’s Terrifying Toy
During the previews before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, there was a trailer that made people squirm a little in their seats—director Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN. Now, a second trailer for the Universal Pictures horror flick is here, capturing what gave people an enjoyable jolt in the theater that night. M3GAN is, you’ll see, a robot built by a brilliant robotics engineer working at a toy company. This being a film from horror maestro James Wan (he wrote the story and produces, alongside his fellow horror maestro Jason Blum, Michael Clear, and Couper Samuelson), you can rest assured that M3GAN is not just some average, friendly robot toy. Naturally, she will have to kill some people.
The trailer sets up the stakes swiftly. Our robotics engineer is Gemma (Allison Williams), who designed the toy robot to help her recently orphaned niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), from feeling lonely. Gemma shows Cady how to press on the robot’s palm to “pair with her,” then instructs the irrefutably creepy robot, who definitely pushes us deep into the uncanny valley, to “protect Cady from harm, both physical and emotional.” The robot takes this command extremely seriously.
The creative team behind M3GAN knows what they’re doing. This was a robot was designed to make us feel ill at ease, lifelike but certainly not alive. The trailer reveals some beautiful, creepy touches, such as when the girls dance together at the 19-second mark or when Gemma shuts her laptop only to find the robot standing there, staring at her. With hints of Chucky and memories of every robot gone berserk by carrying out commands far too literally (think HAL in 2001: A Space Odyessy, only in the form of a doll), M3GAN toys with our expectations and memories of both horror and sci-films about badly behaving machines. Considering the talent involved, especially Wan, M3GAN will likely subvert our expectations or expand upon them in the creepiest way possible.
M3GAN also stars Ronny Chieng (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Brian Jordan Alvarez (Will & Grace), Jen Van Epps (Cowboy Bebop), Lori Dungey (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, extended edition) and Stephane Garneau-Monten (Straight Forward).
Check out the trailer below. M3GAN creeps into theaters on January 6, 2023:
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Featured image: (from left) M3GAN and Cady (Violet McGraw) in M3GAN, directed by Gerard Johnstone.
