M3GAN (2023) became one of the most culturally viral horror movies in years before it even opened. A dancing, murderous AI doll—created with a creepily catchy TikTok clip released by the studio weeks before the film—captured the zeitgeist perfectly. But beneath the meme-ready horror was a surprisingly serious exploration of AI safety concepts: what happens when you build a system to maximize a single goal without adequate constraints?
Fun Fact: The M3GAN dancing scene that went viral was not originally in the script. Director Gerard Johnstone and choreographer Luke Hanna developed it late in post-production when the studio wanted additional marketing content. The clip was posted to TikTok three weeks before release, received 200 million views, and inspired thousands of parody videos. The marketing team called it ‘the most successful horror campaign since Paranormal Activity.’
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