Movie Review

Film Review: MEGAN (2022): Killer Doll Movie Holds Viewer Attention Through Clever Scenarios Sprinkled in its Formulaic Plot

Megan On Elevator Megan

Megan Review

Megan (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Gerard Johnstone, written by Akela Cooper and starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Lori Dungey, Amy Usherwood, Natasha Kojic, Kira Josephson and Millen Baird.

Megan is a fun new horror movie that, at times, feels a bit like Child’s Play with a female Chucky, but there are a lot of fresh insights that Megan brings into view during the course of its running time. Directed by Gerard Johnstone with a twisted sense of humor, Megan ultimately makes the recent remake of Child’s Play pale in comparison. That’s because Megan has fun with the material it presents and doesn’t simply sink into a standard slasher movie although it comes close at times. This movie makes Megan a character who should be destined to be a Halloween costume for young girls (or perhaps even older ones) in the not-too-distant future.

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Allison Williams plays a robotics engineer for a major toy company named Gemma whose latest hi-tech doll creation ends up in the hands of her niece Cady (Violet McGraw). That creation is M3gan (Model 3 Generative Android), an over-sized doll who ends up being called simply Megan. This film begins with a crash on a skiing trip where Cady’s immediate family dies and Cady is taken in by her Aunt Gemma, a workaholic who is trying her best to break new ground in her competitive company. Ronny Chieng plays David, Gemma’s ambitious boss, who is desperate to make a big profit off the costly invention of the “M3gan” doll.

Amie Donald “plays” the Megan doll while Jenna Davis serves as the life-sized doll’s voice. There are a lot of interesting scenes early in the picture. At the start, an older female neighbor (Lori Dungey) with a dog gets too nosy and Megan responds violently as a result. The authorities ultimately intervene as a nasty young boy also gets his just desserts from the smart but ferocious Megan. Why does Megan act violently when her owners aren’t around? Megan is protective of Cady and thanks to the way she is programmed, there are certain elements of unpredictable humanity which are interspersed in Megan’s evil personality.

Megan is not the first movie with a female killer doll at its helm but it’s the first one where there is such a great combination of humor and terror. Sure, there was Tiffany in the Bride of Chucky movie but Megan is creative in terms of the way she moves and talks and even tops Jennifer Tilly’s creation of Tiffany in terms of wickedness and playfulness. Megan, the doll, also doesn’t have to resort to curse words like Tilly did at times in her film thanks to Megan’s PG-13 rating. The movie, Annabelle, didn’t have the same playfulness with its killer doll’s personality so it’s really not easy to compare to Megan.

Allison Williams is perfectly cast as the competitive Gemma who ultimately becomes the target of her own creation. Gemma is well-written and her voicemail so gleefully announces she has messages on Tinder which helps make her relatable as a character. Violet McGraw ably portrays the niece, Cady, who finds a friend in Megan but must confront the fact that her newfound robotic doll buddy is also a bit on the wild side, to say the least.

Megan “cares” about Cady but the doll is eventually so far over-the-top that she soon goes out of control killing people who don’t deserve to die. None of the people Megan ends up getting killed deserve to die, so to say, but they do need to learn lessons that Megan is more than happy to teach them. Megan teaches them these lessons with horrific consequences, though. We can only hope that Cady and Gemma can escape this doll’s wrath as the plot progresses.

Amie Donald and Jenna Davis, when putting their talents together, make Megan an unforgettable well-dressed creation. She almost looks like an Olsen twin when those Olsen girls were much younger (only more evil) and, at first, Megan’s fashion sense and style fits right in with Cady’s lifestyle. They seem like a perfect fit. Too bad that the doll’s a psychopath.

Ultimately, though, Megan, is a bit too familiar for its own good. The ending scenes become too far-fetched as Megan spirals out of control causing chaos all throughout Gemma and Cady’s complicated lives. We’ve seen this story before but, still, Gerard Johnstone stages the scenes of Megan doing her “wicked” thing with terrific precision that makes many of the scenes humorous and terrifying at the same time. Megan, while not a great film by any means, is the perfect way to start off the new year at the movies and has plenty of thrilling scenes that could serve as jump scares for many horror movie fans.

Rating: 7/10

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Thomas Duffy

Thomas Duffy is a graduate of the Pace University New York City campus and has been an avid movie fan all of his life. In college, he interviewed film stars such as Minnie Driver and Richard Dreyfuss as well as directors such as Tom DiCillo and Mark Waters. He is the author of nine works of fiction available on Amazon. He's been reviewing movies since his childhood and posts his opinions on social media. You can follow him on Twitter. His user handle is @auctionguy28.
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