Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Universal Pictures and Getty Images
What happens when a grief-stricken, recently orphaned child receives an artificially intelligent robo-doll from her emotionally illiterate aunt? M3GAN, January’s hottest new movie, offers a decisive answer: nothing good.
M3GAN, a life-sized animatronic doll designed by ambitious toymaker Gemma (Allison Williams) is a stunning creation. Her facial expressions are human enough to provoke discomfort, especially when her penetrating eyes narrow into a glare and her lips purse downward with disgust. Her silicone “skin” moves subtly, as if pulled by actual muscles underneath.
One could be forgiven for assuming these movements are the product of CGI, but the truth is even scarier. We might be a decade or so away from the day parents can actually buy their kids a toy like this for roughly the same price as a Tesla, but we apparently already live in a world where robots can make some seriously unnerving faces.