BAD DÉJÀ VU AND LAUGHABLE
Movie Review – Malignant
Review by Ray Schillaci
Let me preface this review with the understanding that I am not a hater of writer/director/producer James Wan. I liked his previous foray into the realm of horror/thriller with Saw and The Conjuring, its sequel and even Dead Silence along with his take on The Fast and Furious. He’s a serviceable writer/director. But, then there is Insidious that I slept through twice, Death Sentence, a wannabe Death Wish, and Aquaman, an overblown exercise in superhero tedium.
Now, there is the much talked about Malignant with a supposedly “original” and “surprising” reveal. A cornucopia of horror tropes with either steals or homages too much older horror movies of the past that were far more enjoyable than this tired exercise of wannabe scares. The effects are laughable. Characters so thinly drawn that they could fly away with a fan turned on a low setting. And, as far as the “surprise,” anyone who has ever had the pleasure of pure “B” movie horror fun with Frank Henenlotter’s nearly 40 year old, Basket Case will cry foul once Wan reveals his secret.
He doesn’t just lift from Henenlotter. Wan’s movie remind’s me of so many better movies. Sam Raimi’s Darkman, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, William Malone’s House on Haunted Hill, the 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker and Vincent Ward’s What Dreams May Come. There are even reminders of bad monster movies like The Beast Within and The Manitou. The film comes with exhausting fog effects, strange sounds in the dark and stupid characters following said sounds.
Wan’s flimsy story opens with an experiment in a psychiatric hospital ward. There is a suggestion that the evil being contained has some kind of telekinetic powers, but this is never fully established. After a brutal attack, the doctor insists there is no other way to handle the patient, but to cut out what is causing the havoc. We then fast forward to present day and find a pregnant Madison Lake arriving home tired only to be greeted by a useless and abusive husband. He blames her for the past miscarriages and slams her against a wall.
We are already repelled by both characters. Sadly, Wan has reduced Madison to a poster child for victims of abuse. Her character is just there to be picked on either by her husband, the police who do not believe her, or the entity causing havoc in her life. The redemption only arrives at the end of the film, but it’s not enough for me to care.
After being sent to the hospital and discovering that her husband has been violently killed in their house, Madison struggles with dreams of people being murdered by a person shrouded with a black overcoat wielding a sharp broken trophy. Here’s where Wan tries to make things interesting by mimicking the much beloved cult of giallo films, Italian horror also known as Spaghetti Thrillers or Spaghetti Slashers: Dario Argento’s Tenebre, Paolo Cavara’s The Black Belly of the Tarantula and Pupi Avati’s The House With Laughing Windows.
All of this amounts to so much tireless exposition and build ups that go nowhere. Creepy setups, bloody killings, the standard cops that can’t believe what they see and the whiny victim does not even rate in enjoyable “B” picture territory. The only impressive scenes are a battle in the police station with “the monster” and in the holding cell with a bunch of tough women straight out of a Roger Corman movie from the ’70s.
The film is a disservice to James Wan’s career and horror fans. It’s so hard to tell if the film was made for laughs or a homage to past horror or if it was just a quick cash grab for Generation Z who may not be familiar with the genre. In any case, Malignant is a blemish to the horror genre.
May I also add that HBO Max should start working on making their streaming service better if it wants to keep customers. They can offer as many first run movies for free, but it doesn’t mean a thing if they are nearly unwatchable. People have been complaining for awhile about this. Buffering, movies out of sync, pictures stalling and the entire service freezing up. I used both my Samsung TV and Roku to watch this film as I have with others and had issues that were frustrating. Heck, maybe this is on purpose to get audiences back in the theaters.
Visit Ray’s blog at themonsterinmyhead.com
Directed by: James Wan
Release Date: September 10, 2021
Run Time: 111 Minutes
Rated: R
Country: USA/China
Distributor: New Line Cinema/Warner Brothers/HBO Max
