Think of a movie where you went in and thought you knew what would happen based on the marketing and your expectations being correct. Now, think of a movie where you went in thinking the same thing, and by the end, you don’t even know how to describe what happened. It flipped all your expectations upside down, and you had to pick your jaw up off the ground because of how shocking and wild the experience was. The latter one is exactly how James Wan’s Malignant plays out.
The marketing for his latest horror entry could not have been further from the truth, yet it is the only way it could ever be sold. It’s best to stay away from spoilers on this one. Watch the trailer, piece together your thoughts and ideas, and then go in to experience all your expectations be thrown out the window. It only adds to the thrills the movie puts forth, and I promise the trailers don’t spoil anything at all. Watching the trailer for the first time felt riveting to see that James Wan was back behind the camera to tell another horror story that’s not related to The Conjuring universe (I love that franchise for the most part too, so I’m not dunking on it). I was more than excited to see what his craftsmanship could bring to the genre, and in a lot of ways, he exceeded his skill set more than I could have hoped.
Malignant is about a woman named Madison (Annabelle Wallis) who has extreme, vivid visions of people murdered by a being known as “Gabriel”—an ominous long-haired supernatural silhouette that looks like it can be distant cousins with Sinister’s Bughuul. When Madison wakes up from these nightmares, she finds out the murders happened just as she saw them before. She starts connecting the dots, realizing Gabriel is a figure from her past. She decides to backtrack her history, with the help of her sister, Sydney (Maddie Hasson), to stop his killings once and for all.
Throughout Malignant’s runtime, there are familiar camera movements and set designs that echo Wan’s Insidious and The Conjuring movies. This film acts as a great reminder of just how fun James Wan has playing with the mise en scène and allowing the audience to feel the suspense through the camera and wide-open spaces. He uses it to his advantage as we familiarize ourselves with familiar beats he has done in previous work before. Right as we think something might pop out as a jump scare or that we see something in the shadows, Wan pulls the trigger introducing new ideas to the horror genre and re-inventing the tropes we once knew.
As Malignant balances its tropes, we get the sense that it’s trying to build to something that will blow the gasket. We get snippets of information here and there about Gabriel and how he ties into the story with Madison, and those snippets are enough to plant new ideas in our minds and shift our expectations as the movie moves into new territory. Whether you accept the information and foreshadowing the film puts in front or not, by the time the story comes to its third act, it reaches a whole new level of WTFery. Either you’re going to embrace the absurdity of its journey or get left behind in the dark.
As there’s plenty of foreshadowing from the get-go about how it might play out, there was a constant voice in the back of my mind that kept telling me there’s no way the film would branch off in those areas because it wouldn’t logically make sense and there’s no way Wan and team could pull it off. The longer the film went on, I saw how more likely it might enter the realm where I needed to let go of any logical sense behind the events happening and go with the ride. The more I embraced the craziness of the story as it unfolded, the more enjoyable it quickly became. And of course, Wan proved my doubts wrong because he did pull it off in the best way possible.
Malignant isn’t so much about trying to outsmart the audience as it may seem like it tries to be in the first half. One of its weaker points is how loose the script and concept feel in the first half of the movie. One could argue it is used to its benefit for contrast compared to its wild last half, but a part of me still feels like more character work, and ideas, could be fleshed out in its first half to drive its points home later. Wan does embrace how campy and absurd the premise is overall. Credit has to be given to the actors for giving it their all, especially in the last 30 minutes of the movie. However, I wanted something more from the story and situations to make a little more sense of everything.
With that having been said, Malignant has more going for it than not. Although the idea and concept feel rather loose at times, the overall execution is what makes James Wan the noticeable and prominent filmmaker that he is known as in the horror community today. Everything that happens in the movie is built like an epic, deranged, roller coaster ride with thrills, laughter, and horror around every corner. I can’t stop thinking about the wild journey it took me on, and I am curious how they pulled off some camerawork to capture some of the most seamless dream sequences throughout the film. I would say go in blind, but having my expectations flipped in front of me is an experience that only highlighted how memorable the viewing was. All in all, avoid spoilers as much as you can. Even if it’s not your cup of tea at the end of the movie, I think we would still agree the film itself is a journey—be it good or bad, and that it feels great to have James Wan back in his roots of horror.
