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Malignant Movie Review

Malignant is a 2021 supernatural horror film directed by James Wan and starring Annabelle Wallis. This is one of the most original horror movies that I’ve seen recently.

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“It’s time to cut out the cancer“

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Madison, a young woman, is terrified by visions of the murders of strangers. Later, she decides to find and save the victims. The initial premise promised a regular movie about visions and the first half was all about her power to have a vision of death, more precisely to appear in the room and witness the death of strangers. That was already quite original in and of itself, but the twist made the whole affair even more disturbing and wildly authentic.

It turns out in the end that Madison literally has a devil stuck on the back of her head like a conjoined twin, but in a significantly reduced form. The two share a brain, so that is why she was seeing all of those murders. I actually loved this twist as it made the movie wholly unique and not like anything else. Well, it is somewhat reminiscent to Voldemort on Quirrell’s head in ‘Sorcerer’s Stone’. But other than that, the idea and especially the execution were fresh.

I don’t know what the critics and especially the audiences are thinking, but the lack of appreciation for this incredible horror flick is maddening. Whenever Hollywood produces a product that is at least a bit different, they tear it down instead of supporting it. I find that practice horrible with problematic repercussions for the whole industry.

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Here, they threw around words, such as giallo movies and campy scenes, but I don’t think that most even know what those words even mean. I personally wouldn’t call this a giallo movie, save for a couple of stylistic touches in the cinematography, but a film not being what audiences were “promised” is a ridiculous source of criticism that I strongly disapprove of.

Even worse was the critique of campiness. What is exactly campy here? Nothing really. The scenes where Gabriel killed a bunch of women and police officers were never campy as they lacked humor, but were actually disturbing. Those scenes were fun, but far from truly campy. And even though the concept of the twist may be silly, the vast majority of horror movies are at least somewhat unrealistic, so that did not bother me in the slightest.

Annabelle Wallis was so good here. Her performance is emotionally powerful and you really root for the poor woman to get out of this devilish predicament. Sydney was absolutely lovely. The idea that adoptive sisters are just as valuable as the biological ones was powerfully emphasized here and the fact that she instantly believed her instead of doubting her saved the film from a lot of boring repetition of characters’ disbelief that is usual for these movies. The characterization and the screenplay are surprisingly sophisticated here.

Madison/Gabriel running, jumping and acting basically like a spider made those action scenes truly exhilarating. A true circus acrobat delivered those movements, which is even more impressive in retrospect. I loved the police detective and how competent and brave he was, again refreshing for the genre.

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There are so many aspects in Malignant that felt deftly executed and fresh, all thanks to the mastermind director James Wan. I adore this man’s filmography and he continues to surprise me. This is by far his most creative directorial effort. The film is also very stylized in the murder scenes, though I wished for more of those myself. Perhaps a more insidious ending would have been better, but still most of the movie was both fun and deftly edited and paced.