‘M3GAN’ Has Arrived With Shockingly High Review Scores

Look, I will take my hat off to M3GAN, the android horror film that had probably one of the best viral marketing campaigns in years, from its original trailer to hiring M3GAN dancers to show up at football halftime shows. I was looking forward to seeing it, albeit probably when I could rent it via streaming.

I was not expecting one of the first new movies of the year, in cold January when studios usually dump their trash, to be getting these kinds of reviews from critics.

M3GAN currently has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes from 104 critics. It’s not that critics never score horror movies high, it’s that when they do, they’re usually pretty highbrow, artsy type horror films, not…a dancing murder android kills people. But M3GAN just seems to be working for everyone.

While this is literally one of the first movies out this year, we can compare M3GAN to the slate of horror movies that came out last year with these scores. Here’s the list, as it stands with M3GAN included:

1. Hellbender – 97%
2. The Innocents – 96%
3. Sissy – 96%
4. Saloum – 96%
5. A Wounded Fawn – 96%
6. M3GAN – 95%
7. X – 94%
8. Prey – 94%
9. You Won’t Be Alone – 93%
10. Barbarian – 92%

It also places it above Pearl (91%), Mad God (91%) and The Menu (89%). And on that list above, I would not call any of the ones listed higher than it “mainstream” horror, as in things that did big theatrical runs. X, Prey and Barbarian are more mainstream, I’d say.

Why do people like it? It’s just silly enough to work:

• “M3GAN is what the 2019 remake of Childs Play should’ve been. It’s also a fun movie to watch with an packed audience.” – Double Toasted
• “M3GAN and M3gan herself are more than just memes; this is a killer crowd-pleaser that is perfectly sinister and silly.” – Crooked Marquee
• “In a unique mixture of comedy, social commentary, and horror, M3GAN is instantly a cultural and cinematic phenomenon.” – AMovieGuy

Audience scores are not quite as high, sitting at a 77% instead, but that’s actually pretty good. A 77% is actually the highest audience score of any of 2022’s top 10 horror movies I just listed above.

In short, it really does seem like against all odds we’ve witnessed the birth of a horror classic, and now it just went from something I was vaguely interested in to a must-see. I’ll have full review out down the road.

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