Malignant Quicktake: Creepy, Twisted, and Devilishly Fun
Malignant is 2021’s most insane horror movie. The runner-up clocks in at a distant second. Don’t get me wrong, I mean this as a compliment.
In an era of sequels, reboots, and knockoffs, director James Wan gifted viewers with a film, unlike all the rest – a delirious mystery-thriller packed with the horror master’s signature brand of terror.
Madison Mitchell’s (Annabelle Wallis) past is shrouded in mystery. She was adopted as a kid and has no recollection of her early years. Now an adult, Madison is forced to stir up her childhood memories after dreaming about a series of grisly murders.
It turns out Madison’s visions aren’t hallucinations; they’re happening in the real world. Making matters worse, the culprit claims to be her imaginary childhood friend Gabriel. Is Madison going into trances and killing people, or is an evil supernatural force to blame? Madison teams up with her sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson) and two Seattle detectives to get to the bottom of the case before more people turn up dead.
After Wan’s last picture, Aquaman made over a billion dollars at the box office, Warner Bros. wanted to start production on the sequel right away. Instead, Wan took on Malignant as a small-scale project bookended by his two blockbuster titles. Think of it as an artistic palette cleanser, like chowing down on a cracker between sips of fine wine. Malignant is Wan cashing in the clout to make the bats#it crazy movie he wants to see.
Wan lets his freak flag fly with Malignant. That’s a loaded statement considering he’s the guy who made Saw and The Conjuring. Wan crafted a pulpy, violent thriller with shades of De Palma and Argento. Except De Palma and Argento’s seediest work looks highbrow compared to the depraved movies Wan is channelling.
Malignant is trash cinema done with the love and craftsmanship of a world-class filmmaker. This movie is to campy ‘80s horror what Kill Bill is to campy ‘70s kung fu flicks. Thrilling, sadistically violent, and incredibly self-aware.
“Wan lets his freak flag fly…”
Malignant’s slick production values place it in a different tier than the creature features it’s riffing on. It’s by no means a big-budget picture, but its gritty, low-fi aesthetic has a glossy sheen. Wan dials back the CGI as much as possible, opting to shoot some of the creepiest sequences in camera. The production team is simply too good to look amateur, even if amateur fits the film’s vibe.
Close your eyes and imagine a haunted house, and I guarantee it looks like Madison’s house. Cinematographer Michael Burgess and production designer Desma Murphy pull out all the stops to bring your worst nightmare to life. Madison’s dreary abode is a haunting maze of dark hallways, creaky floors and eerie moonlit rooms. Unfortunately, I can’t describe the most spectacular visual effects without dropping major spoilers.
Wan understands how audiences perceive his work, so he does his damndest to subvert their expectations. And as a result, he packs the film with so much more than a series of jump scares.
The movie begins like the filmmaker’s previous haunted house flicks before switching gears. Malignant is an ultra-violent creature feature with psychological horror elements. It’s part serial-killer thriller, part mad scientist flick, and part creature feature with some gory body horror thrown in for added kick. Wan snatches bits and pieces from different genres to produce a movie that feels familiar and wholly original.
“A pulpy, violent thriller with shades of De Palma and Argento.”
Malignant doesn’t fall victim to the genre’s schlocky cliches even as Wan reproduces them onscreen. Instead, he’s recreating these moments as acts of reverence. The film leans into groan-inducing camp with a devilish smirk. This is the type of flick Ed Wood could have produced if he had the budget, studio backing, and Hitchcock’s talent.
Malignant works best screened in a theatre with a raucous audience or in a room full of rowdy friends. It’s one of those movie experiences that feeds off the vibe in the room. You literally feel the energy in the room shift as the mystery unravels. There’s also a handful of gruesome moments that will leave people shaken. I’m talking WTF sequences that will have the people covering their eyes and screaming, “Oh hell no.”
Malignant kicks ass because Wan never looks down on the lowbrow premise. He’s paying the genre the ultimate respect by taking the material seriously – even though it’s not serious material. Wan wouldn’t be the success story he is today without growing up watching countless B movies. And that love shines through in every frame of Malignant as Wan unleashes hell on the audience with gleeful abandon.
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