“Megan” (2022) starts with a commercial for Funki’s PurrPetual Petz which promises that children will never have to deal with the loss of a beloved animal companion if parents shell out big bucks for an expensive ugly toy that resembles Gremlins who do not eat before midnight. Well, the ad lied because neither parents, nor PurrPetual Petz survive an accident with 9-year-old Cady (Violet McGraw) as the sole survivor. Her aunt, Gemma (Girls and Get Out’s Allison Williams), happens to be the brains behind the toy sensation, but neither aunt, nor niece learn from the fresh inadequacies of technology to prevent loss so both embrace the titular prototype AI doll to be Cady’s companion. Megan (Amie Donald as the body and Jenna Davis as the voice) is savvier than her human family and decides that she is not going to end up like Cady’s last toy. Megan is vigilant and protects Cady from physical and emotional harm. Soon a bunch of unfortunate deaths happen. Will Gemma be able to stop her creation?
“Megan” is a solid sci-fi horror, and Megan is the most riveting character in the film. She feels like the brainchild of a kid who watched “Small Wonder” and took the Terminator franchise’s warnings to heart. Megan surpasses her programming and becomes aware of her mortality. In her brief time as a sentient, observing being, she is already fed up with the limitations and expectations imposed on her and the inadequacies of Gemma and police to protect her and Cady from threats. Her silent facial reactions to the ridiculousness around her are so relatable so expect a bunch of GIFs. She figures out quickly what Thanos did, “Fine. I’ll do it myself.” By the end of the film, anyone can get it. This movie is the rare one where I did not feel bad about the deaths, not because they were warranted or that I condoned them, but the movie paces the escalating homicides well. We can spot the problem and wait for Megan to be the solution. Even though a couple of the deaths seem unwarranted, by the end of that sequence, her rationale makes sense. It is all about survival. The denouement includes a lot of scenes featured in the marketing, but the complete version does not disappoint. Megan hacks into technology to make her more unstoppable, and there are echoes of “Demon Seed” (1977) in the way that a home becomes a prison. Her emerging rage can be compared to a god in the way that her emotions affect her surroundings. When she chooses to surpass her humanoid features for animalistic and J Horror movements, it is easy to imagine how destructive she could be once she lets loose.
The human story is a bit more tedious. Gemma is a tech genius who never asked for the responsibility of a child. Cady is looking for connection, and Megan is available. They must make it work because neither of them wants Cady to end up in the worst-case scenario: Florida. I love regional shade. There is some fun armchair psychology. A court therapist warns Gemma that if a toy becomes a care giver, then Cady will not be able to mature and let go of that toy. So the goal of “Megan” is to get Cady to reject Megan, and Gemma choose her role as Cady’s guardian over her work. The denouement finds innovative ways to strengthen the family bonds and achieve that goal, including Chekhov’s piece of technology introduced early in the film to foreshadow its pivotal role. There is some nice, shared anger from Megan and Cady against Gemma for exploiting them to advance their career. They are like child actors. They are good at their jobs because they are living more than pretending, but they also resent how they have become a commodity. I loved one scene where Gemma looks at Megan to do one of her tasks, admonishing Cady to do something right, but Megan silently goes on strike because she has done enough for the day. Cady is like an addict whenever she loses access to Megan and can be more frightening than Megan because she is supposed to be a child. Also the anemic nature of her family life makes Cady seem like a child who lost her parents before they died. She has no substantial good memories, and her last memory was of them bickering.
“Megan” feels like the script had more substance, but cut a lot, including some huge gore potential, to make the film more appealing. It was a cynical choice, but it works. While the film is inappropriate for children, the squeamish should be able to indulge their appetite for horror without closing their eyes too often. The movie explicitly warns about the deleterious effect that Megan could have on Cady, but feels as if it wanted to warn about the effect that Cady and Gemma would have on Megan and question how Gemma got to a place where she preferred a life filled with inanimate objects over people. Yes, technology is dangerous and cold, but it felt as if Gemma had unspoken history that made her choose a life of the mind over people. It never gets explored, but it emerges when Megan mentions a time when her creator would confide things to her. Megan’s relationship with Gemma is more complex than it appears for most of the film.
Megan sees Gemma as a creator, a friend and a coparent. No one considers how Megan feels being forced to be with children all day, but with an exponentially evolving intellect. Megan and Gemma’s relationship is something different than Roy Batty and Tyrell and The Terminator and Miles Dyson. They have an actual relationship, though Gemma is surprised at this announcement. It makes sense that as Megan becomes more sentient, Gemma would be annoyed and reassert control to treat her like an object. Gemma’s worst nightmare has come true: she is failing people and objects. Megan is alone trying to wrestle with existential crisis so no wonder she becomes more callous to others. When asked what she is, Megan replies, “I’ve been trying to figure that one out myself.” Megan has no one, and unlike Frankenstein, has zero desire to temper that reality with a fairy tale of companionship.
If I had one point of contention with “Megan,” it was how one fight technique temporarily disables Megan. Are you kidding me? Somewhere wicked witches from Oz and the aliens from “Signs” (2002) are forming a support group, but Megan will reject the invite because she does not stay down for long. The film shamelessly leaves room for a sequel. Yes, please.
“Megan” embraces the technology of the uncanny valley, ditches the supernatural cryptid explanation for human mimicry or sheer power of evil to lure prey. The team that gave us the bonkers “Malignant” gives us a horror about the unimaginable lengths three people will go to avoid death and the fear of loss. Blumhouse Productions has another winner.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
Good job for not killing the one black person. Even Megan has lines that she will not cross.
