"Malignant" Review: A Twisting Blend of Horror
- Vega
- Sep 12, 2021
- 6 min read
Platform: HBOMax, In Theaters
Release Date: September 10, 2021
“Saw”, “Insidious”, and “The Conjuring”. Three of the most prolific horror franchises over the past twenty years and each had beginnings that included the twisted mind of one Australian film director, James Wan. While horror fans are no stranger to the hand Wan has had in a multitude of horror films spanning the last sixteen years, his current accolades surround his leadership of DC and Warner Bros. “Aquaman” franchise. Even with his resposibilities surrounding the billion dollar franchise, Wan continues to play in the genre that propelled his career. Serving as a producer on four upcoming horror films, including the next “Insidious” and a new adaptation of “Salem's Lot,” Wan also found time to spend three months in 2019 on principal photography for a new original horror film, “Malignant”. The trailers for the film were not particularly awe-inspiring, portraying a srange blend of hallucinatory horror with an imaginary friend, but in “Wan I Trust” I guess. His history in the genre grants him more than enough trust to ride this 1 hour, 51 minute movie to the finish line. But be warned, spoilers abound.
Following three miscarriages, Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis) is feeling hopeful that her current pregnancy is the one. (How fitting is it that the main actresses name is Annabelle, considering James Wan's creation of the “Conjuring” universe and the spolight he placed on the haunted Annabelle doll.) Her husband Derek (Jake Abel), on the other hand, blames her for their past losses and has a physically abusive streak that ends when he cracks the wall with her skull during a fight. Following a visit from a shadowy figure, Derek meets a gory end and Madison starts to experience strange visions in which she witnesses the murders of a group of doctors who led experimental efforts at Simion Research Hospital nearly thirty years ago. Bringing this information to Detectives Shaw (George Yound) and Moss (Michole Briana White), Madison hopes that the information will help the detectives get ahead of the killer. But when she reveals the killer carries the same name, Gabriel, as the imaginary friend from her childhood, Madison opens a door to suspicion focused solely on her. After spilling a family secret to her sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson), she and Madison dig deep into Madison's past to understand her upbringings, find her connections to Simion Research Hospital, and uncover the truth behind Gabriel.
An original vision comes with a lot to unpack and I want to start with the opening of the movie. The film begins with a sci-fi, mad scientist-like opening scene set in a secure facility that was akin to a Saturday Night Halloween Special. It showed Dr. Florence Weaver (Jacqueline McKenzie) responding to an incident at Simion involving an unknown being, of which we are offered only a glimpse, that can influence electricity and communicates through electronics like the radio. I honestly thought it was a movie set in the movie with how campy it felt in acting and dialogue, and even when the connections are made in the final act it never felt consistent with the rest of the film. It was shot like an alien autopsy gone wrong, with an “Independence Day” Area 51 massacre feel moreso than the haunting killer vibe throughout the main story. What it does somewhat well, though, is set the standard for the movie to hit on different horror gears and not just stick to the shadow-focused horror that encompasses most of the film. There is also a lot of fast-paced, action horror and gore horror that become more prominent as the story moves forward. Even so, I think the film set some expectations in the beginning of the film of a spirit/ghost that is not well explained away with the story's explanation as the twists are revealed.
With a slew of originality, this movie definitely takes a few chances with story details and style, both of which found successes and failures. The big reveal is, of course, that Madison grew up in Simion Research Hospital before being adopted and that she had a twin brother, Gabriel, that was partially merged to the back of her body. Following a procedure meant to remove him and his influence on Madison, the part of the brain that they shared stayed dormant until Madison's head was knocked into the wall. Gabriel could then take control of Madison's body and was committing the murders against the doctor's who tried to end his existence. I could not help but feel that Wan got inspiration from Harry Potter, with Voldemort's physical introduction being a face merged on the back of Professor Quirrel's head after being possesed by the Dark Lord. While being effectively shocking, the set of twists surrounding Gabriel and his supernatural abilities missed the mark a bit in just being too out there. It was this shift in movie style, from haunting shadow figure to the mad science creature feature that killed a momentum I thought was building pretty well. That is not to say that it was not shocking, as I enjoyed the connections that were made and that much of the dangling plot threads were tied together, it was just done with the strangest of conclusions. To be honest, the visisualizations of Gabriel attached to Madison's body were kind of humorous and felt like something Sam Raimi would put in a horror film.
The story introduced a few plot devices that were left unused and just fell off. Detective Shaw had his eye on Madison's sister while a CSI working on the case clearly had an eye on him, all of which was made blatantly obvious, but had no impact on the story. The opening with Madison's husband dying painted a spirit-like presence, especially with the couch cushion slowly raising, indicating an unseen figure rising up. That makes no sense with knowing it was Gabriel using Madison's body to do the killings because he can not turn invisible. These were small enough that they could almost slip under the radar without much notice. I loved the pacing of the first half as it really hit the gound running and did not really on a large build up for effectiveness, although the exposition slowly got heavier with all the exposition needed to explain the connections. In that exposition, though, were some poorly used information drops that seemed important to the character narratives but were not given the impact. For example, when Madison dropped the news that she was adopted to Sydney there was no time given for that to sink in or to be given more spotlight considering that information led the sisters to uncover the secrets of what was happening. The same could be said for Madison learning that Gabriel caused her miscarriages by feeding on the fetuses to grow in power.
A real highlight of the movie was how Wan played with shadows and took a modern approach to the horror and balancing that with a fast moving horror reminiscent of old sci-fi/horror films. The twitching and backwards movements that propelled Gabriel around were so unsettling and eerie. I do not think it was meant to be an homage to the spirit in “The Grudge,” but that was where the movements took my mind. The character was made more sinister by having him only act in the shadows in the movie's beginning so that when he was put more into the open with his long hair and trenchcoat he seemed more menacing. It is almost frustrating that I did not realize how much of these aspects were a clue to the big plot twist. The twist itself, while shocking because of how absurd it is, is not necessarily uber original. In some of its specifics, yes, but this will be far from the first time that you have seen some sort of twin sibling-related haunting.
Part modern horror, part psychological thriller, part sci-fi thriller, part murder mystery, the movie borderlines on being a catastrophic mess. “Malignant” is not the best horror movie I have seen this year, but it is very much one of the better ones and, definitely, the most unique. Even though the odd blending of horror sub-genres and tones felt off at times, it worked more times than not. It has been a while since I felt so compelled to write about a horror movie, the last being the underrated powerhouse that is “Z,” but this movie will have you saying “What the fuck?” over and over again. So many horror films these days, even when boasting originality, seem to fall into many of the same pitfalls of poor homages and knock-off copycats. This film manages to stray away from most of that while offering an entertaining, albeit maybe a 20 minutes too long, dark thriller. e is more sophisticated quality to be found elsewhere.
RATING: 💡 💡 💡 💡 / 5
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