MALIGNANT

 

Early hype around the film “Malignant” was mostly based on the fact that it was going to be director James Wan's return to his roots of low budget horror filmmaking. It is hard to believe that seventeen years ago, Wan (together with his best friend and creative partner Leigh Whannell) was behind the helm of a small film called “Saw”, a then unknown entity that became a moneymaking goldmine for Lions Gate Films. Whilst that series has blown out to a whopping nine entries, Wan was only in the director's chair for that first film. Personally I believe that he is the modern day equivalent of the great horror directors that we had back in the seventies and eighties like George Romero, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven. He is excellent at building atmosphere and scares, and has a clean and classic visual style that is his own. I understand that he is not everyone's cup of tea, but surely no one can deny that he is incredibly successful creating no less than three horror franchises himself (the aforementioned “Saw” series, plus “The Conjuring” and “Insidious” films). After his dreadful comic book film, “Aquaman”, I was seriously looking forward to seeing Wan return to horror, especially of the low budget variety where you seem to be able to take more chances in the type of story you can tell. Then word trickled out that “Malignant” was to be a giallo; I was convinced this was going to be amazing!

Madison is regularly tormented with terrifying nightmares depicting brutal and graphic murders. Obviously these images disturb the poor woman, but things get so much worse when she finds out that her dreams are actually reality and that she is witnessing the murders of real people. While she cannot explain the reason why, she appears to have a psychic link with the perpetrator of these crimes, and he is fully aware that Madison is watching. Fearing that she herself will be a future victim, Madison attempts to find a connection with her, only to discover that the murdered all have something in common; they all worked at an medical institution Madison stayed at when she was a very little girl, before being adopted by a loving family. Armed with only the killer's name, Gabriel, things take a turn for the strange when Madison visits her adopted mother where she informs her daughter that that was the same name she gave her imaginary friend when she was a child.

Let me qualify this review by stating that I absolutely love the fact that “Malignant” is an original story and not another remake, sequel or cookie cutter copy of the same old things we always get in horror. Thank god this was something different for once! However it is because of all this that it pains me to say that sadly “Malignant” is a bit of a dud and definitely James Wan's worst “horror” film. Also, it is nothing close to being a giallo (although in fairness, Wan did expand on this by saying this film is inspired by the “visuals” of the gialli, not that the film itself was a giallo). Instead what we ended up with was a very silly horror film, with an incredibly goofy story line, delivered in a campy tone, that while deliberate, is just not successful. Wan's second film, the shockingly underrated “Dead Silence”, was also full of camp, but was done in a manner where you would laugh with the film rather than at it, which is what we do with “Malignant”. Also, while the film is very bloody and gory (particularly in its final third), it is never scary for a second, nor does it disturb its audience.

I think the aspect of the film that I was most disappointed in was the visuals and cinematography of “Malignant”. The film was just so dark, shot in bland, dingy and dull colours. For a film that was meant to be inspired by giallo visuals, the lack of colour in it is a shock. The best examples of gialli all embrace colour to the point of over-stylisation (the colour becomes the style), and yet “Malignant” is filled with blacks, dark blues, greys and browns. I will admit that there were a couple of nice shots, namely the Brian de Palma-esque overhead shots above the rooms, and a nice shot through an eye-hole in a door, but overall I was left unimpressed by the visuals onscreen. This was definitely a surprise as this is an area where Wan usually excels in. Even Wan's set ups of his scares felt tired and cliché, reverting back to ideas he used in “Insidious” or “The Conjuring”. I understand he has his own particular visual style, but this time around, it just felt stale. Also his over reliance on flashing lights in an attempt to create fear made me roll my eyes regularly. A scene that most fan's consider the best in this film is the third act massacre at the police station, but again this was a moment I hated due to the way it had been shot. I am totally over modern filmmakers shooting a scene as if it was one shot, but has clearly been manipulated digitally. Wan does that here in this scene, and it just looks like something out of a video game, and nothing like cinema. It is a shame too because this should've been the stand out scene of “Malignant” but I just cringed during it. Another thing that I bemoaned was the constant use of cgi gore and blood because it just does not hold any weight and is easy to pick up on, thus taking you out of any scene that it is used, which in “Malignant” is a lot.

Probably the biggest surprise of “Malignant” though is just how poor the dialogue and line delivery is in the film. I get that the story is at times very wacky and out there, so the actors may have struggled to deliver lines in this environment and make it seem real, but this is another area that James Wan usually excels in. He normally gets great performances out of all of his cast, but here, the majority of the acting is deplorable. The two girls playing sisters Madison and Sydney, Annabelle Wallis and Maddie Hasson respectively, fared the best, but the rest of the cast put in shockers, particularly the pair playing the cops on the murder case. It was nice to see Australian actress Jacqueline McKenzie onscreen again, but even she too is average in the role of Madison's doctor. The very fact that Wan is usually so good at eliciting performances from his actors, makes me consider that these average performances are intentional and meant to add to the kitsch factor of “Malignant”, but if that is the case, it is still a massive fail. The worst offender though has to be Zoe Bell, who plays a butch prison inmate. Thankfully her role is very minor but her acting in this role is some of the worst I have ever seen; it is beyond embarrassing.

It sounds like I am being overly harsh on James Wan and his film “Malignant”, that you are probably wondering if there was anything I liked about the film at all. As I mentioned above, I loved that this was a new original property and not a remake or sequel of something that has come before. Aside from that, there were a few things that I liked about the film too. Whilst I think it was sadly underused, the Seattle Underground location was fantastic and created a creepy mood missing from most of the film. I also thought that the dissolving transitions of Madison's visions were well down and the visual highlight of the film. Again, while I didn't think it was realised as well as it should have been, I got a kick out of how bonkers and batshit crazy the third act of “Malignant” ultimately becomes. My favourite part of the whole film, though, was the reveal of Gabriel; the who and what he is. It is cheesy as all hell, but I had the biggest smile on my face during the reveal, as it just harkened back to the goofy horror of the 80's that we all know and love, and I just loved that Wan embraced this moment for what it was, despite how silly it all is. The fact that Wan didn't use cgi in regards to Gabriel and his movements (using a contortionist to perform the bizarre motion) also impressed me.

Overall, I think “Malignant” is a bit of a dud and certainly director James Wan's worst horror film within his impressive oeuvre. It has a myriad of problems, not least is the fact that it is very easy to work out what is going on and thus the audience is often ahead of the film itself. This causes the film to drag as it catches up on what we already know. I also think that the film has been under-cooked in areas, particularly when it comes to Gabriel's supernatural aspects in regards to electricity and technology. The film is poorly acted, and ugly to look at. Sadly, despite being very bloody and gory, “Malignant” is neither scary nor disturbing. However, the fact that it is so silly and off the wall at times, gives me hope.....(wait for it).......that I will like this a lot more in the future. I went into “Malignant” hoping for a modern giallo classic, and got nothing of the sort, so I am sure my negative reaction to the film is partly down to expectations. That said, I have to be honest and after my first viewing of “Malignant”, I ultimately thought it was overlong, silly, and a major disappointment.

2 Stars.