M3gan is not going to be as gory as one of last year’s most well-reviewed horror movies, Barbarian. It’s not even as bloody as Smile, so fans jumping into this movie should know what they’re getting into. The titular M3gan is not going Chucky on everyone.
M3gan is still a great horror movie that prays upon fan expectations and subverts them. There are some cliches in there too. Even though the titular doll isn’t ripping guts out, she still has some brutal kills in the movie. Of the few deaths that occur in the film, these are how they rank.
There will be spoilers.
6 Dewey
The weakest death in the movie is Dewey’, who is Celia’s dog. It’s apparent that this dog is going to die when Gemma yells at it after bringing Cady home for the first time. It’s not even a mean dog as far as horror hounds go. It just likes to run loose into Gemma’s yard because Celia is not that responsible.
Dewey is the first death via M3gan who attacks the dog after he hurts Cady. M3gan lures Dewey through the fence by imitating Celia’s voice which is a horrifying aspect of M3gan’s design. Her ability to change her voice leads to a lot of deaths in the movie. It is unknown how Dewey dies since the scene cuts after M3gan grabs him.
5 Cady’s Parents
The first death of the movie happens within the first five minutes. Cady’s parents are arguing about the snowstorm while Cady is in the back trying to ask questions about her toy that fell. There’s a lot of distracting noise happening which leads to the family getting into a car accident. Cady emerges fine except for some cuts and bruises.
Both parents are killed in the accident though which is how Cady winds up with her aunt, Gemma. It’s odd that they never show a funeral in M3gan given that horror films love to throw these ceremonies in. That would have added more time without M3gan in the movie though, going against the point of making a murder doll experience.
4 David And Kurt
David and Kurt get separate deaths, but they are so close together in the timeline of the movie that it makes sense to combine their endings. David gets stalked down the hall of headquarters once she escapes from Cole and Tess. She throws David off guard by dancing before she picks up a paper shredder and runs after him.
The cut is a bloody one and she uses the same clever to murder Kurt as well. She forces Kurt to Jill himself as she is trying to set up a murder-suicide scene between Kurt and David. As smart as she is, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Despite some irregular motives in the plot, this sequence is fun thanks to the addition of “Walk the Night” by the Skatt Bros.
3 Celia
If Dewey died, it was almost certain that Celia was going to bite it as well. The way in which she would be murdered was showcased in the same scene wherein Gemma brings Cady home. Celia is power washing her driveway with some powerful chemicals that Gemma is not happy about.
Later, M3gan lures Celia out to her tool shed, disgusting her voice as Dewey only to emerge with the chemical spray. M3gan uses it to knock down Celia, then anchors her in place with a nail from a nail gun, and then juices up Celia’s pores with some more chemicals. If the movie was rated R, her skin would have probably melted on screen which may or may not have delighted horror movie fans.
2 Brandon
Children are put in danger in horror movies all of the time but they rarely die. The biggest example of a child getting murdered is probably Pet Cemetery since the son dies by getting pancaked by a semi-truck. While Brandon doesn’t get hit by something that big, he is squished by a truck after getting chased in the woods by M3gan.
It was an accident but M3gan was probably going to murder him anyway. Also, prior to Brandon getting hit, he gets part of his ear ripped off. It’s hard to watch M3gan pull on his ears because they stretch so far before tearing. It has to be the grossest part in M3gan even though most of the gore is removed.
1 M3gan
The best death in horror movies is usually reserved for the villain. This is true in M3gan with the final act being a brutal three-way fight between M3gan, Gemma, and Cady. At first, M3gan has the upper hand as a robot with extreme strength until Gemma is able to briefly short-circuit her with a glass of water. Gemma also gets a few good licks in with a chainsaw before Cady pops in to fight M3gan via Bruce.
It’s satisfying when M3gan gets torn in half followed by a gunshot to her microchip. Technically, M3gan probably isn’t dead since she could have uploaded herself into Gemma’s Alexa-like. That is seemingly what the final shot of the movie is setting up. Still, her body was massacred, making it a death for at least this movie.