Movies | The horror film that became a Tiktok phenomenon became a surprise hit, and its main character may develop into a new iconic monster

Socially a horror film that gained viral visibility from the media M3gan collected approximately 45 million dollars (42 million euros) in admissions in its opening weekend.

of Variety according to reports, the film was projected to gross between $17 million and $20 million in North America, but ended up grossing $30.2 million at the box office. The Finnish premiere is on Friday, January 13.

The result foreshadows sequels, as the Universal and Blumhouse-produced film had a budget of just $12 million.

M3gan’s directed by a somewhat unknown name Gerard Johnstone (Housebound), but there are well-known horror creators behind the script and production.

As a screenwriter Akela Cooper gained fame for the horror film that also caused a buzz on social media Malignant (2021). The main name in mainstream horror is responsible for the story and production James Wanwhich has produced, among other things, Saw– and Conjuring series.

M3GAN is a “third generation Android model”, a toy robot. Its designer, toy engineer Gemma (Allison Williams) acquires an abandoned doll for her seven-year-old niece Cady (Violet McGraw), who has lost his parents. Gemma gives the robot the task of protecting the girl, but it takes the task too seriously.

The age limit for the film is only 13 years in the US, so there is no very bloody action involved. In Finland, the age limit is 16.

A gruesome murmur has arisen of Variety including the fact that the film’s age limit was lowered when the trailer proved to be a hit among young people. Akela Cooper is the screenwriter granted, that the original script had more bodies. According to rumors, there would also be an uncut version.

In the trailer Tiktok people were particularly attracted by the scene where a creepy puppet robot dances along the corridor of some kind of office with murderous lust in its soulless eyes.

The film’s marketing team used the scene’s meme potential effectively, and the premiere featured eight identically masked puppet dancers performing creepy choreography Taylor Swift’s to the beat of the song.

Embedding dance choreography into mainstream entertainment can lead to good results in terms of visibility. For example Netflix Wednesdayseries from the dance scene became a viral hit, especially with Tiktok’s dance videos.

The Hollywood Reporter supplier Richard Newby believes that in M3gan, Universal may have found its own iconic monster for Generation Z, just as previous generations had their Michael Myers and Scream– his thunder. According to the journalist, an artificial intelligence monster like M3gan speaks to young people who grew up with iPads in their arms.

M3gan’s the reception reflects the phenomena created by the current internet culture, since it probably also received ironic votes on the criticism site Rotten Tomatoes, where it has a rating of 94 percent. It is only slightly less than Godfather-film, Newby points out.

But the average assessment of professional critics is also on the commendable side. A review site that uses a slightly stricter filter Metacritic has given the film a score of 72 percent, based on 43 published reviews. Vulture’s review by M3gan is still more fun than scary, and “good enough for a January movie”.

Since January is usually a quieter time in cinemas, Avatar’s of the sequel and M3gan’s the number of visitors will boost ticket sales still recovering from the pandemic.