M3GAN Learned An Important Lesson From Shaun Of The Dead
M3GAN director Gerard Johnstone learned to make two different genres work together from Shaun of the Dead.
M3GAN is the latest venture from Universal and Blumhouse. And the killer doll feature made some serious waves in its debut weekend, earning a better-than-expected $30.2 million domestically. Although stellar reviews and positive word-of-mouth undoubtedly attributed to the film’s successful opening, it sounds like a classic horror-comedy played a role as well. Director Gerard Johnstone recently spoke with Slash Film, where he explained the valuable lesson he learned from 2004’s Shaun of the Dead.
Based on 166 reviews, M3GAN is currently certified fresh on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Critics have praised the film for cleverly balancing scares and witty satire, which is something Edgar Wright’s zombie rom-com did masterfully and an accomplishment Johnstone took note of. He said his mind was absolutely blown during his initial viewing of Shaun of the Dead, and his “big lesson” was “just how seriously they took both genres.”
Although M3GAN and Shaun of the Dead share some similar qualities, they are two completely different movies. The former revolves around a robotics engineer at a toy company who builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own, while the latter sees an electronics salesman and his lazy roommate attempting to survive a zombie apocalypse. Still, it’s evident that Johnstone drew inspiration from Wright’s clever craft to deliver one of the most unique genre offerings in years.
Even before stepping behind the camera for M3GAN, Johnstone successfully managed to juggle terror and laughs in his 2014 horror comedy Housebound. He heaped praise on Shaun of the Dead for achieving an impressively gory yet side-splittingly humorous presentation. He said, “So that’s something that I realized when I was making Housebound that I had to do right.”
Although many filmmakers have attempted to straddle the genres of horror and comedy, it’s a balancing act that few pictures get right. Like M3GAN and Shaun of the Dead, Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon pulled off the tricky task with the completely absurd yet remarkably delightful feature The Cabin in the Woods. In 1996, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson succeeded in completely revitalizing the slasher genre with their funny and scary little experiment Scream.
While it’s likely far too soon to deem M3GAN a classic, the fact that it’s drawing comparisons to multi-genre gems like Shaun of the Dead and Scream is certainly nothing to balk at. Both James Wan and Jason Blum have said they’re hopeful their new flick will launch a franchise and based on its first-weekend box office numbers, it’s safe to say there will be a follow-up. The movie may not have dethroned Avatar: The Way of Water at the box office, but it certainly gave the James Cameron-directed sci-fi epic a run for its money.
M3GAN is now playing in theaters around the world. Directed by Gerard Johnstone from a script by Akela Cooper, the horror hit stars Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald, Arlo Green, and Lori Dungey. We urge you to check it out and see if you can identify the areas of the movie where Johnstone drew inspiration from Shaun of the Dead.
