by Reed Milliken
Malignant (James Wan, 2021) is a mystery horror that uses practical effects, fight choreography, and brief musical cues to pull of Wan’s scariest movie yet. Malignant also features hints of various genres to great effect; buddy cop, murder mystery, and action are all things you can expect to see. Malignant follows widow Madison Mitchell as she suffers from heinous visions of gruesome murders, only to discover that these waking dreams are in fact horrifying realities. Malignant (2021) is great at reminding you just how scary a horror movie can be. Director James Wan serves up the most bloodcurdling, spine-chilling, hair-raising movie of the year so far through his use of great cinematography and fight choreography.
The following review contains spoilers for Malignant, and contains imagery that may be disturbing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.
To me, Malignant feels like an episode from a prime-time TV cop show where the main characters stumble across some spooky supernatural elements only to have it end with a logical, yet still far-fetched, explanation to all of it. This is by no means a complaint, just an interesting observation on some things that stood out to me while watching. Malignant and a prime-time cop show have many similarities in terms of structure, characters, and plot. Furthermore, a lot of the camera setups feature wide shots and crane shots and a majority of the cast are no-name newbies. While these are not critiques of the movie, they are all aspects very reminiscent of a cheap production with a narrow deadline; furthering my comparison between Malignant and a prime-time TV cop show. Unfortunately, this does bring along a few problems I commonly find within these types of shows, the performances are weak apart from the lead, the writing is sloppy, the set pieces are basic, and the lighting is nothing special.
However, director James Wan didn’t let the aesthetic of the movie inhibit his ability to spook; a couple of sequences from the beginning of the movie are some of the scariest in recent memory. Another area of achievement for Wan is the majority of the production design; the vision-shifting effect and the design for Gabriel as a whole are unique and were a great touch. Speaking of Gabriel’s design, the scene where he fights everyone using the back of Madison's body is a very unique concept and adds the perfect touch to all of the fight scenes. Wan did not hold back on the gore, and it made for some gruesome kills. The gore was done practically, which is always appreciated from horror movies as CGI blood has nothing on practical blood in terms of feeling authentic.
However, director James Wan didn’t let the aesthetic of the movie inhibit his ability to spook; a couple of sequences from the beginning of the movie are some of the scariest in recent memory. Another area of achievement for Wan is the majority of the production design; the vision-shifting effect and the design for Gabriel as a whole are unique and were a great touch. Speaking of Gabriel’s design, the scene where he fights everyone using the back of Madison's body is a very unique concept and adds the perfect touch to all of the fight scenes. Wan did not hold back on the gore, and it made for some gruesome kills. The gore was done practically, which is always appreciated from horror movies as CGI blood has nothing on practical blood in terms of feeling authentic.
Maddison during the aforementioned "vision shifting" effect
Unfortunately, some nice-looking blood doesn’t completely forgive the poor CGI found in other aspects of Malignant. Exterior shots of the mental hospital, for example, looked like something stripped from an indie horror game. Another issue is some of the story beats felt a little divergent from the main plot. Take the underground city, for example, it was a cool set piece and concept, but it didn't have anything to do with the story and ended up just feeling tacked on.
This is more of an observation than a critique, but the main theme sounds exactly like “Where Is My Mind?” by The Pixies, almost to the point where I thought it was the song the first time it played. On the topic of sound, there is an orchestral echo riff that is played anytime something spooky happens, it’s reminiscent of the classic Psycho (1960) soundtrack, and while it worked well for me the first couple of times it was used, it was over-utilized and became stale by the end of the movie.
This is more of an observation than a critique, but the main theme sounds exactly like “Where Is My Mind?” by The Pixies, almost to the point where I thought it was the song the first time it played. On the topic of sound, there is an orchestral echo riff that is played anytime something spooky happens, it’s reminiscent of the classic Psycho (1960) soundtrack, and while it worked well for me the first couple of times it was used, it was over-utilized and became stale by the end of the movie.
The reveal of Gabriel poking out from the back of Madison’s head was gnarly; it was like if the reveal at the end of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone (2001) was rated R. I can see myself talking to people ten or twenty years down the line and referring to this as "the movie with the evil parasitic twin" or something along those lines. Also, much like every other movie these days, it was clear they were setting up a sequel with Madison telling Gabriel she'd be ready next time he comes back. Which, if Madison doesn’t just get a lobotomy and remove Gabriel within the first 20 minutes of the next one, you can all expect a very sour follow-up to this review.
James Wan with members of his crew behind the scenes of Malignant
Malignant is James Wan’s eighth feature horror film, and his tenth feature film overall. I still think my favorite of the bunch is Aquaman, one of his two departures from horror, but The Conjuring (2013) is a close second. It seems like over time Wan has been slowly refining his horror filmmaking skills. His first feature, Saw, is a horror staple and one that I make a note to watch every Halloween. The Conjuring is a masterclass in horror and I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I can tell that Malignant is the love child of all of Wan’s prior work. He’s slowly taken the best of each of his prior films and perfected his craft, creating perhaps his scariest movie in the process.
James Wan behind the scenes directing Malignant.
Here’s what I took away from Malignant: James Wan has been at the game for nearly 17 years and he’s still putting out stellar, genre-defining work. Malignant may lack in some minor aspects, but the horror in terms of the practical effects, fight choreography, and overall scares is unmatched. Wan is truly the best at what he does, and I can’t wait to see what he puts out next.
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