‘Malignant’ Movie Review

In the latest film from horror veteran James Wan, Malignant follows a woman named Madison (Annabelle Wallis) who develops a sort of psychic connection with a mysterious killer, forcing her to watch him slaughter people telepathically. It turns out that these bizarre, real-time visions could be linked to something from Madison’s past, and she and her adoptive sister, Sydney (Maddie Hasson), are tasked with uncovering these dark secrets in order to prevent more grisly murders from happening.

The early trailers and clips for this one made it seem like another standard haunted house movie. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially since we know that James Wan is capable of succeeding with a movie like that, it wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary. Throw that notion out the window, because Malignant is anything but ordinary! This is a truly original picture. While it starts off like a somewhat more traditional supernatural thriller in the vein of Don’t Look Now or Lucio Fulci’s The Psychic, the third act twist completely reframes the previous events into something totally different, and it’s brilliant. Almost every critic is mentioning this twist, and in my opinion, it’s the best type of ridiculous. It’s a ballsy move that takes the film into some pretty ludicrous territory, but if you’re willing to embrace it, it’s an absolute joy.

This movie largely rests on the shoulders of star Annabelle Wallis. She’s a pretty experienced character actor, but hasn’t really had the opportunity to show off her range until now. She does an excellent job, and I could easily see her becoming one of the more popular modern scream queens, despite her previous horror credits mostly being terrible. Most of the rest of the cast is good to fair, but this does lead into the one major gripe I have, and it’s honestly the only thing keeping me from giving it the full five stars. Some of the writing, particularly in the first third, is pretty routine and derivative. The screenplay was written by Akela Cooper, whose background is mostly in writing for television, and this really shows in a lot of the dialogue. It’s kinda soapy and melodramatic, and some of those lines are hard to deliver with enough conviction to sell them.

James Wan has such a cool and interesting body of work. Like many greats, he started off in low-budget horror (Saw). He eventually graduated to more mainstream horror (Insidious and The Conjuring), and pretty soon, he was helming blockbuster action movies (Furious 7 and Aquaman). Malignant really feels like the culmination of all of that career history, because it’s one of his slickest films to date. You can tell that his experience doing those big action films has helped make him capable of crafting more elaborate fight sequences, of which this movie has a couple. It also might be his bloodiest film. Sure, Saw was nastier and bleaker, and you really felt the pain of the violence being endured, but there’s probably more gore in this one throughout. A lot of the film is actually reminiscent of some of the more energized and absurd horror films of the 80’s, like those of Sam Raimi, Stuart Gordon, and Frank Henenlotter, especially once the outrageous twist is revealed. You can particularly see the Raimi influence in some of the camerawork. And even still, Wan is a master of atmosphere. He’s so good at using sound and lighting to really put the audience on edge, and the fact that he was able to pull of both tense, psychological horror and get away with a slightly campier turn towards the end is really a testament to how good he is as a master of horror.

James Wan’s Malignant is a potent creation of brooding, atmospheric suspense that leads to a gloriously pulpy (and bloody) finale. Wan’s direction is captivating and intense, and the major twist is wonderfully twisted and absurd. Even when the dialogue falls flat, the gorgeous visuals and lively cinematography keep it fresh and exciting.

SCORE: 4.5/5

TRIGGER WARNING: The film depicts some domestic violence early on, but this does not continue beyond the first 20 minutes.