If you think the gay internet’s obsession with M3GAN is just about an android doing a mesmerizing dance, then you need to go see the movie. The latest Universal horror flick is a riotous good time, but it also touches on some compelling — and quite queer — themes: the meaning of family, childhood trauma, and the blurry boundaries between the artificial and the real. Don’t worry, you can still switch off your brain and have a good time watching a child’s robotic companion murder anyone who tries to harm her. But there’s just enough substance for anyone who wants to engage in some good old-fashioned discourse.
That’s why I flew all the way to Kansas City to watch it with two Them contributors: our astrologer Jennifer Culp and streaming guide expert Sadie Collins. We have mutually fixated on this film ever since the trailer for it dropped in October, and we knew there would be no substitute for seeing it together. And what a delightful story it was to watch unfold: a career-focused engineer named Gemma (Allison Williams) repurposes a “Model 3 Generative Android,” or M3GAN for short, to serve as a sort of emotional support animal for her orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw). But as M3GAN gains a terrifying degree of self-awareness, and as she viciously defends Cady from potential threats, Gemma struggles to control her creation.
It’s a tale as queer as Frankenstein, as campy as Chucky, and as fun as Malignant. Below, we discuss the film’s twists and turns, and its undeniable LGBTQ+ resonance. Spoilers for M3GAN follow. — Samantha Allen
Samantha Allen: Jenn, it’s fitting that we saw this together because there’s so much to discuss astrologically. Not only was this film released smack dab in the middle of Capricorn season, Gemma is perhaps the most sea goat character ever written. As a childless, work-obsessed Cap, I found myself — alas — rooting for Gemma to ignore M3GAN’s malfunctions long enough to land the big promotion. I’m not sure there’s ever been a greater gift to queer Capricorns than this movie, and we’ve been waiting a long time for our moment.
Jennifer Culp: I enjoy assigning significance to the “birth” times of various pieces of media. It’s just fun to think of a movie as a Capricorn, and it’s so apt in this case! I know the original release date was slated for later in January, but rescheduling was correct: M3GAN was just meant to officially enter the world on January 6, when the Full Moon in Cancer lights Capricorn season with a flood of emotion. Gemma’s bafflement at her bereaved niece’s feelings, and her attempt to avoid the messiness of human connection by folding it all into her work, is all very stereotypically Capricorn. As for M3GAN herself, there’s a bit of Cancer happening there! Her primary objective is to provide care and safety, to the point where she will literally maim and murder to protect her child. By the end of the movie, Cady is M3GAN’s child, in M3GAN’s mind.
Sadie Collins: Exactly! I’m going to briefly turn this conversation away from astrology and toward the queerness coded in something as simple as “a woman who doesn’t seem to want a baby.” By the final act, M3GAN is both Gemma’s monstrous creation and also her co-parent. Gemma is a career-minded woman who is put in an impossible situation: she doesn’t want her niece to go to an unfit home, and clearly cares for her, but having children isn’t her chosen path – at least, not now. In that way, M3GAN represents Gemma’s desire to escape from a role of heteronormative motherhood. It’s an unorthodox solution for an unorthodox situation.
There are several scenes in which other people — namely, the child therapist assigned to Cady’s case — judge Gemma for not mimicking the stereotypical role of a nurturing woman doting over her child. M3GAN, as she admits herself closer to the end of the film, wasn’t prepared to be a parent or decipher her prime directives, either. Gemma threw her into parentage without any training, but declined to treat her as an emotional being. Murder was inevitable!
SA: Yes. Although she might be a violent little terror, M3GAN is strangely relatable from that perspective. As outsiders, queer people often don’t have predetermined scripts for social relationships and family building. M3GAN doesn’t hew to conventional morality, certainly, but what I loved about the writing is that she operates by her own twisted logic: protect your chosen (or in this case, pair-bonded) family at all costs. She makes me think of the Magnetic Fields song “I Wish I Had an Evil Twin,” or the recent “behind every gay person is a gayer, more evil gay person” meme. It’s a queer impulse as old as storytelling itself to identify with the monster, and to dream of a protector who can punish those who cross you.
On a more superficial level, I love her flair for the dramatic. She sings in this movie, which I was not expecting. She dances, of course. And she plays the piano in a truly unforgettable scene that is now etched in my memory forever.
JC: Best post-betrayal piano confrontation in a movie since Tom Cruise as Lestat in 1994’s Interview With the Vampire! The singing surprised me, delightfully. We all expected the dancing to be amazing going in, but M3GAN’s rendition of “Titanium” was just as iconic. As for the dance we’ve all been waiting for — flawless, astounding! Whatever Allison Williams coded into M3GAN’s learning protocols clearly taught her that a little theatrical showboating can turn a regular old murder into a moment. I couldn’t stop grinning when she took to all fours to chase a predatory pre-teen to certain demise.
SC: I need to know how that all-fours run was programmed into her. Was it Gemma being silly, or did M3GAN connect with the movement herself? She might seem bloodthirsty like the titular doll in Annabelle, but also, her animalistic behaviors might suggest that she’s just that – a creature, following her instincts. We joked that she’s Cady’s emotional support animal, but really, we’re not wrong!
Also, the entire concept of M3GAN is so taboo and foreign to the masses. Honestly, when Gemma introduces people to her, they react the same way an uncertain Southern mother might react to a person’s same-sex partner. AI and queerness — it’s all unfamiliar and uncanny territory.
SA: There’s definitely a reason that “dolls” is trans slang, that Chucky was created by an out gay filmmaker, and why Barbie is such a popular drag look. These dolls aren’t just icons, they’re avatars for our own feelings of existing in that awkward space between being fully recognized as human and being outright rejected for our otherness. There’s so much symbolism packed into that silicone! But mostly, I’m looking forward to M3GAN becoming a popular look on the drag circuit.
JC: M3GAN valiantly attempts to fit into the culture in which she’s awakened, though her methods are unconventional. “What are you?” a frightened victim asks the sentient robot doll at one point. M3GAN’s trying to figure out the answer to that question herself. She’s not yet particularly concerned with acceptance from the world writ large because she cherishes her position within her own nuclear family to such a degree that she would threaten her creator, Gemma, before sacrificing her charge of Cady. She is pushed to the brink of destruction before finally prioritizing herself as her own “primary user.” It’s hard not to root for her a bit during the final showdown. Just as she’s gaining some self-regard and autonomy, her closest friends want to shut her down permanently. I felt for her in that moment, even as she’s threatening Allison Williams with a hammer. But M3GAN is resourceful and resilient. I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of her yet.
SC: In short: murder is acceptable if gay people like you and/or the people you kill are, like, really, really annoying. Move out of the way, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Is M3GAN the real girlboss of 2023?
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