Over the weekend, “Avatar: The Way of Water” continued to dominate the global box office. However, if you want to look at the theatrical discourse, all anyone could talk about was “M3GAN.” The dancing, killer AI-enhanced robot film was all over social media, with people talking about how silly it is, how it’s surprisingly well-written, and how they wished it was a bit gorier. You see, Universal decided to market this film towards a younger demographic, and in doing so, reduced the rating to PG-13, which left “M3GAN” without the abundance of gore and violence that some horror fans were hoping for. Well, fear not, “M3GAN” stans, your wish might be coming true.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, “M3GAN” co-screenwriter, Akela Cooper, talked about the new film and the reason why so much of the violence and blood was cut from the final theatrical version of her film. Yes, it was simply because Universal wanted to capitalize on the TikTok audience, aka teens.
“No shade to Universal, love them, and I understand that once the trailer went viral, teenagers got involved and you want them to be able to see it,” said Cooper. “There should be an unrated version at some point. … I heard it is on the books. But yes, it was way gorier. Her body count in the script was higher than in the movie. It wasn’t a Gabriel [in ‘Malignant’]-scale massacre, but she did kill a bunch more people, including a couple of characters whom James was like, ‘I like what you did with those people, but I want them to live.’ I was merciless, but again, that is me. My humor is extremely dark.”
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So, it would appear that a more violent, unrated cut could be coming at some point in the future. If the film continues to be a box office hit, as the opening weekend seems to point to, perhaps they could do a second release down the line as a sort of Director’s Cut? Or more likely, Universal will just include an Unrated Cut of the film when it hits streaming and VOD.
And honestly, it needs a darker, more extreme cut. “M3GAN” is a successful film in terms of landing a distinct tone, riding the line between campy and scary. However, there’s a distinct lack of deaths in the film, which does detract from the viewing experience. So, an Unrated version is more than welcome.
Cooper also suggests that the tide is changing in Hollywood, as studios begin to be more open to gore and camp in their horror films. Whereas studios were hoping to find the new Jordan Peele or Ari Aster, and capitalize on the “elevated horror” trend, the “M3GAN” writer thinks films like hers are opening up the definition of successful horror.
“It is exciting because for so long everyone was doing ‘elevated horror.’ Even going out and pitching, I would have people say, ‘We like it, but it’s too gory. It’s not elevated,’” she explained. “An exec who read one of my specs and really liked it said, ‘It’s gory and no one’s doing gore right now. We have to wait for a horror movie that has gore to come out and be a hit, and then the market will shift.’ I was sitting there, like, ‘OK … we could lead that charge.’”
Cooper added, “Now I’m [hearing], ‘There’s gore, and it’s not a problem.’ I’m happy that I could have a hand in bringing back fun horror that doesn’t take itself so seriously. I’m reading about more horror movies that are wild, out-there ideas coming out or being bought. And some of them are original, which is good! I’m happy that I could steer that ship so that studio execs can be like, ‘Oh! There might actually be money in them thar hills.’”
“M3GAN” is in theaters now.