No Dolls Allowed
One of my core memories is staying over my cousin’s house and sleeping on her sofa in the living room next to a short coffee table. As I lay on the sofa, I looked under the table and vividly remember seeing Chucky’s legs as he scurried across the room. Head now under the covers, I turned around and closed my eyes as hard as I could for as long as it took for the fear to subside. Needless to say, I began sleeping in my cousin’s room when I visited and I didn’t see Chucky after that.
For as long as I can remember I never liked dolls, especially the porcelain kind with their beady eyes wide open, staring straight into your soul. (They come alive at night, this I’m completely sure of.) The doll in The Boy…creepy! The doll they made for Annabelle movies don’t strike much fear in my heart but the actual cursed doll being a Raggedy Ann doll is unsettling. Thankfully, Chucky has become more comedic over the years, or I would probably still be afraid of him too.
(My brother even used to have this Spider-man chair I didn’t like much. I would turn it around if I slept in the same room as it. Now that I’m thinking about it maybe I’m the problem and not the dolls, but I digress.)
Today I went to see M3gan in theaters with my brother and sister and truly, I didn’t think I would care much for the movie. I couldn’t understand why she was dancing before going to kill someone and really I still can’t understand it but I did laugh. I saw so many reviews praising the movie, it was a good enough reason to get out of the house. While I did enjoy the movie, it did remind me a lot of Child’s Play (2019), a doll created to love and care for it’s owner beyond whats morally acceptable, going as far as murder to protect them all while using technology to do it. There’s nothing new under the sun I suppose.
The movie opens up with an ad for a toy that children can play with through their iPad. On a snowy road on the way to go skiing for the weekend, a man and woman discuss children having to use technology to simply play with a toy, which was designed by the woman's sister, and the importance of limiting their child's screen time. During their discussion, they crash into a snow truck with their daughter, Cady, being the only survivor of the wreck. She goes on to live with her aunt, Gemma, who designs M3gan, a toy that eventually takes her place of being her niece's main caregiver. M3gan is programmed to protect Cady both emotionally and physically, spending more time with her than her aunt, who was ill-prepared to care for a child, by comforting her about her parent's death and reinforcing the rules of the household. She plays her role a little too well.
M3gan and Cady's relationship is a selling point for the doll to the public. (For a whopping ten-thousand dollars!) Though of course, since it's a horror movie, murder happens. More than a few times. In the end, good wins out and Cady and Gemma, after bettering their relationship, work together to destroy M3gan (is she gone for good?...that's to be determined).
The movie really reinforced something I already knew: some parents relay too much on technology to raise their children, to their detriment. As a parent, your relationship with your child becomes doomed the second they feel they have to rely on anyone or anything other than you for comfort, reassurance, and support, especially during their formative years. Too wrapped up in her career Gemma, understandably, wasn't ready for the role of guardian let alone mother, yet she didn't want to send Cady to live with her grandparents in Florida. She spends hours working to program toys for the company she works for, but rarely spends time with her niece who just lost both of her parents, leaving her to become so attached to M3gan she clings to the doll, barely wanting to do anything if it's not around. Not only that, but she uses her niece's relationship with the doll for professional (and financially, let's be real here) gain, almost up until it is too late. I'm side-eyeing Gemma 100%.
Hypothetically, if I could afford a M3gan doll, would I buy one? HELL no. And don't invite me over if you have one either.
