It’s not exactly a secret that M3gan was toned down for a PG-13 release. Anyone who saw the movie could’ve known as much. So when the news broke that we were getting an unrated release streaming on Peacock, the news was understandably met with overwhelming excitement and I simply had to give it a watch for myself.

The bad news is, this is gonna be a very short blog entry because it’s basically the exact same movie. There’s one kill that’s significantly bloodier and one that’s just a little bit more gory, but both are only extended by maybe half a second each. I don’t know if this cut would’ve gotten a PG-13, but it would’ve been an extremely soft R at most.

Still, this second viewing got me thinking back on my earlier review. While I did give the film a positive review on the whole, I have to wonder if I wasn’t quite positive enough.

Yes, at the time, I singled out the movie’s heart and emotional core as the single biggest reason for why the film works as well as it does. But then I rewatched the scene where M3gan is getting her big presentation to the Funki board, and by all the gods above, that scene hits so hard on so many levels. There’s so much going on in that scene that has nothing to do with action or horror, it’s just an exceptional work of powerhouse character drama. From the direction to the performances to the writing, there are so many layers working in perfect harmony to make it easily the best scene I’ve ever witnessed in any movie this year so far outside of Missing.

My biggest reason for caution at the time of first impression was in arguing that the film didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel or do anything especially novel. (That and the fact that they killed the dog, but I’m sorry, I still maintain this particular fucking dog is worth an exception to the rule.) But then I saw how M3gan has really taken off as a character and an instant horror icon. Obviously, the presentation is a huge point in M3gan’s favor and it’s still too early to see if this is just another dancing flash in the TikTok pan. But no, I think there might be more to this. And nobody gets to be this huge — certainly not in the crowded field of horror slashers — without bringing something new and wholly unique to the table.

There have been many toys that turned homicidal — Chucky, Annabelle, the Puppet Masters series, etc. — but those were all evil monsters from start to finish, only sweetly disguised as innocent playthings. If we wanted to list well-intentioned science experiments and AI that were corrupted and eventually destroyed by humanity, we’d be here all day. In particular, M3gan bears no small obvious resemblance to GLaDOS, most especially when M3gan’s voice gets more heavily modulated toward the end of the film. (Can’t believe I missed that in my initial review, it’s a great sound design touch beautifully executed.)

But with M3gan, we’ve got a sweet and innocent AI toy that builds up a strong emotional connection with the protagonist — and by extension, the audience — before she turns evil. I’m hard-pressed to think of another iconic horror slasher who fits that particular niche, aside from… well, aside from Child’s Play (2019). But let’s be real, that reboot was never going to catch fire while it still had to compete with the ongoing original continuity and its far more iconic original villain. (With all due respect to the great Mark Hamill, the film did not fail for lack of trying on his part. Or anyone else’s, for that matter.) Also, we never saw nu-Chucky turn on his creator like M3gan turned on Gemma, that adds a whole ‘nother layer to the proceedings.

Basically put, nu-Chucky attempted and inevitably failed at everything M3gan ultimately did. Without the baggage that comes with rebooting an existing franchise, M3gan was free to exist on its own terms and make a more potent statement, standing out on its own unique terms.

All that being said, it bears remembering that this movie was absolutely a fluke and there’s no way an early January release opposite freaking Avatar: The Way of Water should’ve turned out to be this good. There’s already a sequel on the way — and rightly so — but I’m open to the possibility that the franchise has already peaked and we’re looking at a long slow procession of sequels desperately trying and failing to recapture the magic of the original. I hope to the gods that I’m wrong, but time will tell.

In the meantime, M3gan rocks. If you’ve already seen the movie, you can safely skip the unrated cut on Peacock, you won’t be missing anything new. But if you haven’t seen the movie yet, or if you want to see it again, I totally recommend watching the unrated cut on streaming.