Far Out Meets: ‘M3GAN’ writer Akela Cooper discusses TikTok, AI and B-movies
After working on a mix of successful horror and science fiction projects over the past decade, such as American Horror Story, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and James Wan’s Malignant, Akela Cooper was the obvious choice to pen M3GAN, the campy horror flick on everyone’s lips.
The film stars Get Out‘s Allison Williams as a workaholic roboticist, Gemma, who receives guardianship of her newly-orphaned niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). Although the pair initially struggle to connect, the situation spurs Gemma to finish creating a life-size humanoid AI-powered doll, M3GAN, for Cady to play with. However, events take a turn for the worse when M3GAN develops sentience, attacking anyone who gets in the way of her friendship with Cady.
Not only does M3GAN provide audiences with the perfect blend of camp humour and gory horror thrills, but the film also questions the threat of technological advancements like AI, something that currently feels more prevalent than ever. Although cinema has explored the dangers of technology for decades, M3GAN places the topic in a distinctively modern setting, making it all the more terrifying. Speaking to Cooper over Zoom, I asked her whether the AI antagonist HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey had a direct influence on the creation and characterisation of M3GAN. Although it feels as though HAL is an early precursor of M3GAN, Cooper revealed that she was never consciously inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece.
Instead, she explained that her main sources of inspiration were Child’s Play and Chopping Mall, combined with her own personal fears of becoming the sole guardian of her sister’s children if anything bad were to happen. Cooper explained that the character of Gemma spawned from the question, “what if I had to take care of a small traumatised child?” Between bizarre dance sequences and gruesome acts of revenge, the film provides a succinct analysis of the dangers of technological reliance – something that has extended into innately human connections, such as parent-child relationships.
Despite the extreme events that take place in M3GAN as a result of technological advancements, the screenwriter maintains that AI isn’t a fundamental threat. Cooper explained: “AI is only a threat insofar as we make it a threat. There has to be a human hand in it”. She suggested that if we were to make dolls like M3GAN, “Us being human beings… I think we would be a bigger threat to it than it would be to us, given our history”. With the rapid development of AI technology, especially within the art world, Cooper asserts that there must be “legal parameters” and “laws in place that protect everybody”.
In keeping with the technological discussion, Cooper shared her opinions on the burgeoning influence that the social media app TikTok is having over the film industry. After the M3GAN trailer was released, several gory scenes were cut to give the film a PG-13 age rating due to an overwhelmingly positive reaction from teenagers, many of whom viewed and made memes from the trailer on TikTok. Cooper shared: “There was such a huge response from young people. The execs are like, ‘we can’t not let teenagers now come to this film’. And I totally understand, and it worked”. With the success of M3GAN, Cooper expressed the potential for a “PG-13 horror resurgence,” explaining that “young people do deserve to get to see horror and be scared just like adults”.
Although Cooper was “bummed” that the gorier moments were cut from the movie because “the special effects were so cool,” these scenes will hopefully make an appearance on an extended DVD version in the near future. Regardless, Cooper asserts that she will continue to “write the R-rated horror that I write,” stating that “I know what I like in horror, and I know what I want to see.” Moreover, Cooper is happy for viewers to refer to M3GAN as a B-movie, citing them as some of her biggest inspirations. “They’re just there to be entertaining and fun. And that’s what I love about a B-movie – it’s not trying to be anything else. You know what you paid your money to see. I have no problem with anything I do being classified as a B-movie.”
As our conversation progressed, Cooper listed some of her favourite B-movies, such as The Thing, Pumpkinhead, and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, describing the latter as “my all-time favourite horror movie”. Other favourites include horror classics such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and, of course, Child’s Play. This led to a discussion on the dominance of ‘elevated horror’ within the industry, a bizarre and elitist concept that has been used to describe ‘intellectually stimulating’ horror films such as Hereditary and Get Out. However, whilst doing so, the term essentially insults the entire history of the horror genre. Cooper added her two cents, saying, “it’s an elevated term in and of itself. It’s like, ‘Oh, I’m not like those other horror movies.’ But it’s like, ‘yeah, you are a horror movie, just admit you’re a horror movie.'” However, she explained that she thinks “there’s room for everything.”
She continued: “My only issue is how the industry just piles on when one thing becomes successful, then that’s all they’ll make. And so for the longest time when I was pitching, [execs] were like, ‘Well, it’s not elevated; it’s too gory.’ And so I’m happy that Malignant and M3GAN can be the vanguard to bring back fun B-horror movies”. At the centre of Cooper’s ethos is writing what you want to see, not what you think people want. Her advice to aspiring writers is to “write what you are passionate about. And don’t try to follow trends because, by the time you finish it, those trends have probably changed.”
“The reason I even got my meeting with Atomic Monster was because I wrote two horror specs that were ideas of mine,” Cooper added. “They didn’t get made, but they got me in the door with a company that was as passionate about horror as I was, and it was great finding that little horror community. But it got me M3GAN, Malignant, and The Nun 2.” Part of that community is James Wan, who has worked with Cooper on the three projects listed above. She claims that “there’s a wonderful trust” between them, describing working with him as “amazing”.
Cooper will reunite with the Atomic Monster crew to write the sequel to M3GAN, which is set for release in January 2025.
