OnScreen Review: "Malignant"
Malignant is the newest film from acclaimed horror master James Wan. Wan emerged onto the scene with Saw in 2004 and has solidified himself as one of the most influential voices in horror over the last decade with the Insidious and Conjuring franchises, the latter of which spawned its own cinematic universe. He also enjoyed some blockbuster success with Furious 7 and Aquaman. Malignant is likely to be one of the directors more divisive films.
The film opens in a flashback to 1993, at a research hospital where a child named Gabriel is under psychiatric evaluation and has a violent outburst with deadly results. In the present day, a woman named Madison (Annabelle Wallis), experiences a trauma and a domestic disturbance that results in crossing paths with the police and Det. Shaw (George Young). Still reeling emotionally and physically from her trauma, she reconnects with her sister, Sydney (Maddie Hasson), but it also unwittingly has a strange connection with the Gabriel from the opening, a shadowy figure with immense strength and some supernatural abilities who appears to be on a murderous rampage that Madison becomes witness to in graphic detail. She and her sister try to work with the police to find and thwart Gabriel.
Malignant goes in a slightly different direction than many of Wan’s more recent horror films, which were mainly in the supernatural horror realm and atmospheric in nature. Those films were steeped in classic jump scares and ratcheted up the tension, know just the right moment to play on the nerves of the audience. There are far fewer scares to be found in this film. Rather, it is more of a slasher thriller with some horror elements than a straight up horror film. I immediately thought back to some not-so-classic 90s films like Jennifer 8 and In Dreams where a woman has a psychic connection to a killer in some form or another. There is also at least two episodes of The X-Files that this movie made me think of too, “Humbug” and “Mind’s Eye.”
This film is certainly not a star vehicle. Outside of the blockbusters he has directed in the past, Wan has mostly eschewed high-profile actors for his films and opted for strong, reliable actors instead of reliable box office draws. Wallis is the biggest name here, and she is hardly a household name at this point, with her biggest claim to fame to date being the entirely forgettable Mummy remake with Tom Cruise. Working with a lower profile cast can be blessing in these kinds of movies because you can get past the actors and focus on the scares and thrills. And everyone in this movie is suitable; there are no completely risible performances, save for a divisive one, in Gabriel, depending on your perception of the movie.
And that is where I have the most trouble with this film, is in my perception of it. Going into the film not knowing much of anything about it, I was expecting a certain level of expectations for what to expect from a James Wan horror film. Instead, the movie is more akin to an 80s or 90s horror thriller filled with schlock and camp instead of tension or dread. Wan himself has said that this is his version of a giallo film, which is a horror/thriller/mystery subgenre that I am not particularly fond of either. So it’s entirely possible that I am predisposed to being against this movie.
The dividing line is likely to be whether people go for an absolutely insane “twist” and whether the outrageousness of much of the action lands for you. I think the movie could best be described as an elevated B-movie. But the problem is that I can’t tell if this is intentional on the part of Wan and if he is in on the joke or not. This is not Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez doing Grindhouse, where the winking to the audience is on full display. I can’t surmise if Wan intends for me to laugh at some of the things I am witness on screen or not. There is one scene that is so over the top in its violence and gore that I was chuckling to myself and applauding the movie for going in such a crazy direction to make an obvious reveal shocking. But there were other moments in the film where I was chuckling in more of a cringe-worthy manner, particularly in an encounter between Gabriel and the police. I just did not get the impression that most of the laughs I was having were intended. And yet, someone I know had the opposite reaction to this film, prompting him to proclaim, “James Mother Effing Wan!”
To my eyes, Malignant felt like a huge misfire. To others, it is something to revel in. Your mileage is likely to vary depending on how you enjoy your schlock. It’s definitely a change of pace from Wan. It still seems like there is an audience out there for giallo and everything else that this film is bringing to the table. It has elements that I enjoy in other films, but how it was all pieced together in this particular film just was not for me.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars