M3GAN is the latest horror film to emerge from the Blumhouse content mill, a rote flick about some possessed robot that betrays its masters and massacres innocents in some perversion of programming. You've seen it before, I've seen it before, we've all seen it before. What we haven't seen is our lead demon doll breaking out a TikTok dance mid-murder.
Just watch the M3GAN trailer for yourself. I actually recommend watching the whole thing — it's pretty entertaining and looks like the typical bloody good time you expect from low-budget Blumhouse-produced horror movies.
You've got a doleful main character looking for a friend, an overwhelmed adoptive parent, and some experimental technology untested around human beings. What could go wrong?
James Wan, the guy behind Annabelle, devised the plot of M3GAN so you know there's a haunted doll pedigree at play here.
But we're not here to talk about M3GAN's story. We're here to admire M3GAN's amazing dance moves.
Late in the trailer, you can see M3GAN bust out some TikToker-like spins and twists, for no apparent reason, before doing some sort of cheerleader front-flip.
It's so inexplicable that it made me laugh out loud and I'm pretty sure that was the intended effect. I mean, she's kinda serving.
And, thus, M3GAN the demon robot became immediately iconic and inspired a host of dance-related memes across Twitter.
M3GAN comes off more deadpan than jokey in the trailer so this moment of unabashed camp is a complete surprise, making it all the funnier.
Blumhouse has a history of gimmicky horror flicks alongside prestige titles though M3GAN's second life as a meme is not always typical of knowingly corny Blumhouse joints. You usually can't force buzz without, say a clever marketing stunt.
The question is whether the hype will carry M3GAN to box office success when it premieres in January 2023. That's a long time to keep making dance memes.
