20 Horror Movies Nobody Expected To Be Good

Killer toys have been a longstanding trope in horror cinema that can be traced back to the 1907 silent film The Doll's Revenge. Similarly, warnings about technology have also become an increasingly relevant part of the genre in recent years. When clips of a dancing doll surfaced online for the James Wan-produced horror M3GAN, moviegoers expected that it would be a familiar horror outing that bore a striking resemblance to the 2019 Child's Play remake.

The plot centred around Cady (Violet McGraw), a young girl who lives with her roboticist aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) after her parents die. To help her niece work through her grief, Gemma gives her access to her latest project, a highly advanced prototype called M3GAN. However, events quickly take a dark turn when the "perfect toy" takes its orders to protect Cady too literally.

Instead of devolving into a derivative film about the dangers of AI, director Gerard Johnstone delivered a sharp and darkly comedic feature that contained some genuinely gruesome moments. More impressively, though, M3GAN acts as a heartfelt and poignant exploration of family that examines our relationship with technology.

Given how great this film was, it's disappointing that its sequel was so underwhelming.