While the rest of the world was in Easter mode, Blumhouse hatched a deliciously blasphemous bit of counterprogramming the horror shingle is calling “Halfway to Halloween.” Basically, producer Jason Blum is capitalizing on fans’ year-round appetite for scary movies by putting three of the company’s biggest hits — “M3GAN,” “Annabelle” and “Ma” — back in theaters for one day apiece, six months removed from Halloween.

As I settled into my seat for the April 30 screening of “M3GAN” (the 2023 murder-doll thriller that ranks right up there with “Get Out” and “Glass” among the company’s top-grossing films), Blum appeared in a pre-recorded message on screen to compliment the halfway full room of horror movie die-hards for celebrating what he called “the most sacred of made-up holidays.”

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With “M3GAN 2.0” scheduled for release this summer, I figured we might get an early tease of what’s to come in the sequel — or, if we were really lucky, a reward-the-faithful switcheroo, the way Ari Aster did by sneak-premiering “Beau Is Afraid” to Alamo Drafthouse audiences who thought they’d bought tickets to a fan screening of “Midsommar.”

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Alas, this was a just straightforward re-release of the original PG-13 cut, with one enticing twist: Meta had picked “M3GAN” to launch the company’s new Movie Mate technology, wherein audiences are........

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