Director James Wan returns to his roots with this new original horror thriller. A woman is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.
I’ve long been a fan of James Wan, from his first breakout horror feature, “Saw,” to the first two “Conjuring” films, as well as the first two “Insidious” movies, right up to the cartoonish but highly enjoyable, “Aquaman,” he has always delivered rousing entertainment. However, when Warner Bros. didn’t offer any press screenings for “Malignant” leading up to its September 10th theatrical release earlier this year, I started to worry. Typically, when a studio foregoes customary press screenings for any of their movies, especially the bigger budgeted films in their release slate, it’s usually a sign that the movie isn’t good and they don’t want any bad word of mouth before its opening.
When “Malignant” came out on Friday, September 10th, both in theaters and on HBO Max, naturally I went to see it but after watching the film, part of me understood why the press screenings didn’t occur. While “Malignant” is not a bad film, as a matter of fact, it is a very good one, with some genuinely creepy moments throughout, it is not your typical James Wan horror movie and the Warner Bros. Marketing Department must have had a difficult time trying to promote and publicize it to Wan’s core fanbase. Even the film’s trailer is very generic and uninspiring, something more akin to a first-time straight-to-video, low-budget feature shot for $10,000.
Annabelle Wallis stars as Madison Mitchell, a pregnant woman who lives with her abusive husband, Derek (Jake Abel). One night during an argument, he rams her head into a wall, causing it to bleed upon impact. She manages to escape to the bathroom, locking herself safely away from him. Later that night, after things have calmed down, she leaves the bathroom but when she enters the living room, she discovers Derek’s lifeless body lying on the floor. The killer then attacks Madison and she passes out.
The next day, she wakes up in the hospital where her sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson) informs her that her baby did not survive the attack. After the police interview her about what happened, she goes home but when she begins having terrifying nightmares of people being brutally murdered by a hooded killer, she quickly ascertains that they are not, in fact, nightmares but visions of real people dying. With the help of a psychiatric hypnotherapist, Madison discovers that she was adopted and had an imaginary childhood friend named Gabriel but soon thereafter, they learn that Gabriel was not imaginary, but was the name of her twin brother, a half-formed child facing out of Madison’s back, an extreme version of a teratoma, a rare tumor that can hold different types of tissue such as bone, teeth, muscle, and hair. An operation successfully removed Gabriel, except for his brain, which remained dormant, up until Derek smashed her head into the wall. Now Madison must try to reason with Gabriel before he kills those close to her.
“Malignant” is that rare stroke of genius that will undoubtedly divide audiences, even those faithful to the modern master of the supernatural. I think it is safe to say that Wan’s McGuffin is unlike any other horror film plot device in recent memory and as a result, some people will revel in its ingenuity, while some will feel so overwhelmed at the sheer preposterousness of it all, they will have no other choice but to simply laugh at its absurdity. This is where I find myself torn. Gabriel is imaginative and at the same time, scary, but there were times even I had to laugh at the illogicality of it all. We go to movies like this to suspend our disbelief but sometimes, a film prevents us from doing so, and that film is “Malignant.” If you are a James Wan fan, then definitely check it out, otherwise, you might find yourself switching it off halfway through.
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