James Wan may have a number of different horror movies under his belt, but somehow he always seems to come back to evil dolls. While his previous work has included Saw’s puppet Billy and The Conjuring’s Annabelle, his latest movie, M3GAN, brings the killer doll branch of the horror genre a brand new, technologically advanced icon. In a recent interview, Wan explained exactly where his obsession with murderous toys came from.
Speaking to Yahoo! Entertainment, Wan revealed that everything stemmed from watching the classic horror movie Poltergeist at a young age. It seems that the scene involving a possessed clown doll is what brought modern cinema audiences many sleepless nights. He said:
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
“I would just jot it down to watching Poltergeist at a very young age. That was definitely a very influential film for me, and I saw it at a very young impressionable age, and it made a huge impression on me, and that creepy clown doll definitely scarred me for life. But I also like to say that I’m a big collector of these kinds of things. I love my collectibles, my action figures, and so naturally, the idea of making movies based on one of these things coming to life is exciting for me. It’s thrilling, and, of course, in the horror genre, it means I can have a lot of fun with a story like that.”
M3GAN Changed Its Target Audience At The Last Minute
Universal Pictures
While many teenagers will admit to having watched an R-rated movie or two before they should, when it comes to cinema releases, the potential revenue range between an R-rated and PG-13 can be huge. For that reason, when M3GAN’s trailer became an unwitting viral sensation among teens on TikTok, Universal pushed the movie down a less gory route to secure a lower rating. This means that while the theatrical release will be a little tamer than planned, there could well be an R-rated version following at some point.
On the subject of toning down the blood and gore, James Wan had no real issues with the changes and noted that he could see why the strategy around the movie’s release was altered at the last minute. He said:
M3GAN’s change of tact has certainly not hindered the movie so far, with Rotten Tomatoes reviews almost perfect, and the movie expected to pull in up to $20 million on its opening weekend. M3GAN releases in theaters on Jan. 6.
“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. 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.”
