#malignant review

[suckmyshlock]

Malignant, 2021

dir. James Wan

Paralyzed by fear from shocking visions, a woman's torment worsens as she discovers her waking dreams are terrifying realities.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

MUSIC: ⭐️⭐️

PERFORMANCES: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

EFFECTS: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

WRITING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Honorable mention: LIGHTING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let's get this out of the way: Malignant is not a great movie, but it's also not supposed to be.

I'm going to try to be light on details in this review, since director James Wan has stated he'd prefer if early viewers kept the twists to ourselves. But I will say this: the ends justify the means. The first half of this film felt a little slow to me, but once the pieces start piling up, it all comes together.

Malignant is just about the James Wanniest James Wan movie that James Wan has ever made. The official trailer has a little piece of press from Wan (giving the trailer a real William Castle or Alfred Hitchcock vibe) in which he states two things that I carried with me into this film: he wanted to get back to his roots, while giving horror audiences something new. In both of these, he succeeds. Malignant is an original story couched in a tonal and stylistic throwback to early-to-mid 2000s horror shlock. For those of us familiar with Wan, it's a welcome return to our era. Wan's directorial debut, 2004's Saw, while generally more bleak than the majority of theatrical horror of the time, is probably the film that best exemplifies horror of that era - in visuals, sound design, acting style, camera movement, and structure. Those of us that grew up around this time and/or fans of 2000s horror know exactly what I mean - these stories are generally original (though the 2000s did see their fair share of sequels, it was before the remake craze really took off) and executed to extremity, with a sort of 1980s shlock comedy flair, quick 'n dirty cinematography, and obscene amounts of gore. And Malignant delivers on all of it. There's a lot more of Saw in this film than Wan's other, more recent works, and for me that's a strength. It's a wild ride, unlike anything that we've seen in about twenty years, and I'd be absolutely fucking ecstatic if it ushered in a resurgence of new-millennium-flavored filmmaking. But I have no idea if it will. Wan's status as one of the most successful horror directors of our time is solid, but I have a feeling that for most of the younger generation - and modern audiences in general who weren't very interested in horror at that time - this is gonna go right over their heads. This flick has more in common with something like The Midnight Meat Train than The Conjuring.

I don't want to review the technical aspects of the movie too closely and color anyone else's experience, since this is just released. I'll only say a few things: To me, a good actor isn't necessarily someone who feels "real", but someone who plays a character the way they need to be played and really gives it their all. The actors, especially our lead, Annabelle Wallis, do just that. I was particularly impressed by the camerawork and lighting in this movie, though the sound design bothered me in the same way it does for all of Wan's films - he loves to dampen the visual impact of his scares through the addition of loud noises, a common tactic in modern horror which I hate. The gore is great, the transformation sequences are wonderful, and it's like a breath of fresh air to see the vibes of my formative years have not been forgotten.

I have nothing but respect for James Wan. He has a clear vision, and it's radically different than any other of the more serious horror greats of our time. I only hope that Malignant will be a hit, and allow more of his projects to be made, because the landscape of 2020s horror is stronger with him in it.

[hannahwatcheshorror]

MALIGNANT (2021)

💁‍♀️Strong Female Lead

James Wan seemed a bit self indulgent with this one but otherwise it was very fun and heartwarming by the end. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Trigger Warning Domestic Violence, Pregnancy Loss, Seizure, Rape Mention

We meet the very pregnant Madison who gets into a verbal fight with her husband and then a physical altercation with him which was not cool. She locks herself in the bedroom with a head wound (yikes) and he sleeps on the couch. (Also, Maddy works in the field of healthcare so I have no idea how she went to sleep with a bleeding head wound but okay movie magic) Not too late into the evening does the husband find himself being haunted by something spooky that kills him and then seems to be coming for Maddy. In all the fuss she loses the baby which is of course devastating. In one night she loses both her husband and her baby (sad!). 

So she comes back to her house after the apparent home invasion because she refuses to let them take her home from her too but doesn’t have the common sense to lock the doors when she showers at night? Because when she realizes that the shadow man is in the street she has to run down the stairs to lock the front door and close the curtains and then when she goes for the back door it is already open. At this point you would think Mads wants to die. I couldn’t believe it! Then she runs upstairs and locks the door after hearing noises and tells herself that it is nothing and that it is all in her head and I literally said out loud “You don’t know that!” because it could just be a regular fella right now coming in off the street to kill her, she is being SO DUMB ALREADY and it hasn’t even been half an hour. I am perplexed by this character and her actions. ANYWAY.

People keep dying and Madison is having visions about them but she is also mysteriously involved with them in her childhood (like how she was adopted). When she has these visions she is paralyzed though (important to note). She tells the police about her wacky visions and that her old imaginary friend, Gabriel, was killing people, even one officer gets attacked by a strange backwards man but no forward progress is made. Actually things come to a head when they find a lady in Maddy's attic as well as the murder weapon… Dun dun dun! But I don’t know why the one detective thinks Mads is the killer, Kekoa literally got his ass beat and nearly killed by a backwards man but he still thinks that Maddy could be the culprit, that’s hilarious. (yeah, absolutely outrageous)

While Mads is in jail, her sister does some digging and God bless that she goes to the abandoned mental facility with no bolt cutters. I mean, it is in the script that she gets in, but let’s be honest with ourselves and know she might encounter some locked fences or doors on her way to her goal. She gets the files and videos they need and everything is even rewound for them. They find out that, plot twist, Gabriel is Madison's conjoined twin! They tried to cut him off of her but he just compressed himself within her and it took the domestic violence earlier to break him out of skull jail (this is why the back of Maddy's head is always bleeding). Back at the jailhouse Gabriel taps in and busts up the pack of bad jail babes and they were terrified to see Gabriel come out of the back of Madison's head (as they should have been, he promptly murdered them all with extreme prejudice). Gabe works his way to a guard, gets the keys, breaks out of jail, but doesn’t hand back the controls to Maddy which is a big problem because Madison hasn’t learned how to wake up when Gabe is controlling her. 

Gabe, now obviously in Madison's backwards body, is just slaying every cop he sees. It is sort of amazing, I am having The Crow flashbacks what with all the dramatic hair and the dramatic cloak and the dramatic action. Either way Gabriel killed all the cops but the main ones we liked (thanks, guy). Then we are in the hospital with Gabe and Mads real mom who gave them up for adoption way back when. Gabriel is ready to end things, he also wants to end Madison's “new” sister who she chose over him and Maddy is trying desperately to wake up and take control of her body. Then her sister drops the biggest bomb, GABRIEL WAS FEEDING OFF MADISON'S FETUS’ TO GAIN STRENGTH FOR HIS RETURN, WHAT AN ASSHOLE. This is enough for Maddy to power through, push out Gabe, take back over and save the day! Gabe goes into mind jail, he says he will break out and Maddy says she doesn’t care, it is the most sibling argument ever. It ends with the two sisters hugging because the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

----------------------HANNAH WATCHES HORROR---------------------

[the-midnight-files]

Midnight Files - Malignant Review

I have no words... I know some people said this is like a homage/parody of horror movies and that it’s not meant to be taken seriously, but... The movie takes itself seriously, sooo...

Yeah, it’s Malignant alright...

[ohyoubringmejoy]

Malignant (2021): REVIEW | Danixinhahhh