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When M3GAN came out in 2022, there was a lot of chatter, understandably, about how the TikTok-dancing killer doll might fare in a fight against Chucky, another iconic terrorizing toy. There isn’t really a consensus answer — M3GAN’s got technology on her side while Chucky has voodoo magic — but it would certainly be a good fight. When Abigail came out earlier this month, we were wondering about a vampire versus doll showdown, too. 

This all has us wondering: How would M3GAN fare against the killer from one of this year’s most frightening horror releases? Would M3GAN stand a chance against the haunted pool from Night Swim? 

With both M3GAN and Night Swim streaming on Peacock, let’s discuss this battle between Blumhouse/Atomic Monster horror movie all-stars. It’s the toybox splashdown — now taking bets.  

For More on M3GAN and Night Swim:
James Wan, Jason Blum, and Allison Williams agree: M3GAN would ruin Chucky in a fight
After Much Consideration, I Have Decided Not to Buy My Child a M3GAN Doll for Christmas
So Why Is the Pool in Night Swim Haunted?

Meet the Combatants: M3GAN vs. Night Swim‘s Pool

M3GAN, whose name stands for Model 3 Generative Android, was a robot companion doll that Alison William’s high-tech toy designer Gemma invented. When she becomes her niece’s guardian following the tragic death of 8-year-old Cady’s parents, Gemma offloads some of the parenting duties to M3GAN. However, M3GAN has a controlling, vindictive, and violent streak in her programming. She eventually starts murdering those she deems to be a threat to Cady or to herself, using her agility and powerful robot body to deadly effect.

In the other corner, we have the haunted pool from Night Swim. The January 2024 release stars Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon as a couple who move into a new house that has an old pool in the backyard. Russell is a former MLB player facing an illness, but he starts feeling miraculously better when he swims in their pool. Turns out that’s because the pool gets its water from an old healing spring or wishing well of sorts, and the healing properties carry a heavy price. For Russell’s character, Ray, to get better, somebody has to be sacrificed to the pool. 

The pool has strange, supernatural properties. The pool’s old victims appear as water-logged, drowned ghosts. It can turn into a seemingly bottomless body of water, and it can possess people, forcing them to do its bidding by flooding their bodies with a dark, inky liquid. 

Who Would Win? M3GAN or the Haunted Pool?

Not unlike M3GAN’s hypothetical match-up with Chucky, this fight comes down to technology versus the supernatural. The haunted pool’s powers are vast and harder to nail down compared to M3GAN’s abilities. 

However, there’s actually an even more important and much simpler factor here. Is M3GAN waterproof?

If M3GAN isn’t waterproof — and there’s no evidence in the film that explicitly states whether she is or isn’t — then there’s really not much of a fight. If M3GAN gets in the water and her circuits all fry, that’s game over. 

It seems likely, though, that M3GAN, an expensive, cutting-edge piece of technology, has at least some degree of waterproofing. For the sake of argument, let’s say that simply being submerged in water isn’t automatically a K.O. More questions remain. Can M3GAN swim? She’s very agile, but does her body weigh enough that she wouldn’t be able to propel herself underwater, causing her to sink? If that were the case, the haunted pool could simply “go deep end mode” and have M3GAN descend to the bottom — if it’s deep enough, the pressure might cause her to implode. 

It seems likely that M3GAN would be able to fight the haunted pool’s various drowned ghosts, though she might be at a slight disadvantage underwater. One thing M3GAN does have going for herself, though, is that she is not a living person. This means — based on our understanding of how haunted pool possession works — that the haunted pool probably couldn’t possess her. 

Regardless of the specifics and whatever aquatic capabilities M3GAN may or may not have, it seems the haunted pool has the clear advantage on its home turf. (In this instance the haunted pool’s home turf is itself, because it’s a pool.) The flipside is that the haunted pool really doesn’t have a lot it can do to M3GAN should she simply stay out of the water. M3GAN’s smart. She could Google the pool’s dark history, drain it, and then steal a bulldozer and fill it up with dirt like they do at the end of Night Swim. 

So, at the end of the day, maybe M3GAN versus the haunted pool from Night Swim might not actually be that good of a fight. However, both movies are currently streaming on Peacock and are definitely worth watching. And if there ever is a M3GAN and Night Swim crossover sequel, against all odds, you can bet we’ll be diving into it. 

Catch Night Swim and M3GAN, both streaming on Peacock now!