It’s hard to believe that 2023 is already upon us and the horror calendar isn’t wasting any time getting the bloody party started in the new year. The screaming begins this Friday with Blumhouse’s M3GAN from genre icon James Wan and director Gerard Johnstone. After a wildly fun marketing campaign full of Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish music, the film about an AI companion gone bad finally hits theaters this Friday. In preparation, Universal has released a new clip that teases M3GAN’s malicious power grab.

The clip, exclusively shared by Rolling Stone, has Cady (Violent McGrew) investigating her house in the middle of the night after she believes she hears M3GAN’s voice. Cady finds her Aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), but unbeknownst to her, her Aunt’s in the middle of being threatened by the AI she created. In something more in line with classic mobster movies, M3GAN tells Gemma that she’s going to rip her head off if Cady comes into the room. Gemma goes along with it and tells Cady she’s just fixing M3GAN. Though Gemma tries to fight back, M3GAN pins her against a table.

This clip is another fine example of how this film looks to blend its unique style of horror and comedy. The trailers have focused more on the comedy aspect of the film featuring moments like M3GAN dancing towards her next potential victim down a hallway, but that appears to be all a part of this new killer doll’s scary persona. This clip does an incredible job of showing how menacing M3GAN can be with just her emotionless voice and stare. She’s not afraid to get violent, which we saw in another recently released clip involving an ill-fated ear, but simply hearing M3GAN threaten to rip her creator’s head off is chilling, to say the least. Then in the very next second, as they both fight for control, the brilliantly placed humor kicks in.

M3GAN currently looks to be all things creepy and fun. There’s definitely a dark and classic Frankenstein’s monster type story underneath M3GAN’s unsettlingly innocent facade. Plus, the amazing marketing has paved a scary good road for this film to succeed on. From all the great word of mouth thus far and an all-star lineup both in front of and behind the camera, M3GAN delivers the horror goods and then some.

M3GAN dances and kills her way to theaters on Friday, January 6. While horror fans anxiously wait, you can watch the new intense clip down below.

via Collider