“M3GAN” has plenty of humor just below the surface of its horror in a way that feels at once campy and clever. With its android design, lead performances, and musical selections, it's a wildly entertaining movie — and director Gerard Johnstone credited Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's 2004 zombie outbreak classic "Shaun of the Dead" as a key influence.

When asked which fun horror films he admires, Johnstone cited “Shaun,” saying Wright and Pegg are obviously standouts: “My big lesson from them when I first watched 'Shaun of the Dead' [...] was just how seriously they took both genres.” The filmmaker internalized that lesson for “M3GAN,” saying, “I had to treat the horror as seriously as I did the comedy.”

Wright's film is perhaps the quintessential horror comedy of the 21st century to date, but Johnstone also mentioned other fun horror touchstones like Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell” and “The Evil Dead” trilogy. He commended Wes Craven and the “deadpan” films of Joel and Ethan Coen, which he says employ “a very dry tone, but you can tell they're secretly making comedies.”