Malignant (2021) – Film Review

Director: James Wan

Cast: Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young

Review Author: Tony

Synopsis: After suffering a traumatic attack, Madison is plagued by terrifying apparitions of the murders of apparent strangers. To her horror, these visions are not just hallucinations but reality. As the prime suspect, Madison teams up with her sister, Sydney, to uncover who is committing these murders and how they are tied to Madison.

James Wan’s impact on the horror genre is undeniable; he is the driving force behind three successful series: the Saw movies, the Insidious series, and The Conjuring cinematic universe. Wan has been shaping the horror landscape since the early 2000s. While the Saw series devolved into mere torture porn, with any excuse to up the ante with gory ways to kill off the usually unlikable cast, the original Saw (both created and directed by Wan) was an intelligent and nail-biting film filled with moral conundrums, a fantastic twist, a memorable villain, and a killer soundtrack. Wan’s acclaimed filmography and success at the box office have clearly earned him a lot of confidence in Hollywood, a faith he used to secure a studio budget for one of the craziest horror films in the last two decades.

The initial marketing for Malignant sold it as a modern Giallo-inspired horror film, harkening back to the works of horror maestro Dario Argento. For the film’s opening thirty minutes, the Giallo style is evident, with a killer hidden in the shadows, vibrant lighting and colours, and a suspenseful atmosphere. Wan then pulls the wool over the viewer’s eyes, revealing he has actually Trojan-horsed a big-budget schlockfest bearing more similarities to B-movie cult classics in the vein of Basket Case, Re-Animator, and Dead Alive. This sudden shift in tone is often just as hilarious as it is horrifying, with Wan upping the stakes and gore in equal measure.

Spoilers Ahead: Although, is it really spoilers when the film was released over a year ago?

The killer is behind you, literally; he’s hidden in the back of the film’s protagonist. Our mysterious killer, Gabriel, turns out to be an evil, reverse-placed version of Quato from Total Recall, a tumorous parasitic twin that can take over Madison’s body, putting her in a fugue state while he claims his victims. The reveal scene is just as bonkers as it sounds on paper and adds another hilarious dynamic to the film as it explains the jerky movements of the killers as Gabriel runs around in Madison’s body backwards.

This bombshell reveal could have been enough to wrap the film there and then, but Wan only ups the ante with an insane third act that can only be described as an action horror movie. With Madison taking the fall for Gabriel’s murders, she’s held in a holding cell with what can only be described as a gallery of cellmates from different decades of history, from afros to mullets, denim jackets to sequins. Gabriel decides no mere cell can hold him as he bursts out of the back of Madison’s head and massacres the cellmates and then the entire police precinct. It’s a thrilling sequence with amazing action choreography for a horror film, with plenty of gore and grisly kills to boot. Perhaps a little too humorous for its own good, this third act hammers home just how little the film is taking itself too seriously, which proved divisive for audiences.

The best way to sum up Malignant is the conversation I had with two friends on the way to see it in the cinema. It was to be my second viewing, and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see their reactions to the film. As we were driving up, one friend asked me if the film was any good. My response was that there’s a reveal halfway through the film where you have a choice to get on board with it and all it entails, or you are just going to find it daft. Going onto the IMDb ratings for Malignant now, the number of 5-star and 1-star reviews backs up my logic.

Rating:

Therapy Awards