For a film entirely about understanding the true nature of one’s self, it is quite apt that the biggest question I think most people will have when it comes to James Wan’s new film Malignant is whether or not the film knows what it actually is. The question of self-awareness hangs over this genuinely whacky horror feature like a constant looming threat, with the capability to make this film’s quality suffer greatly or increase exponentially. Although there are many moments that make me question it, I think I’m gonna have to go with the angle that Wan knows what he’s doing and knows that he’s made one the craziest and goofy horror movies of recent years. Does that make the film great? I’m still gonna have to say no.
Sat alone (as I always am) in the Cineworld without any major interest in the film I was about to see, I was frankly blown away and made incredibly excited by the opening five minutes of this film. A truly over-the-top Raimi-esque hyper-violent, hyper-melo-dramatic farce of an opening culminating in one of the most enjoyable line readings I’ve heard in some time. However following that... There is the slow period. Eventually we do get back to the enjoyable wackiness of this opening, but it does seriously take some time. For a very long stretch Malignant becomes the exact opposite of the joyous farce that it shall grow into, with extended overly soppy scenes of painfully dull character development, all delivered either very poorly or painfully over-the-top. Come to think of it I don’t know how many of these actors managed to deliver any of these lines without erupting in complete laughter. Some of these expositing deliveries are so wonderfully dry, despite the nonsense that they are spouting that one can very easily fall in love with the utter commitment of every actor on screen. Again, whether or not we know whether the intention was wholly genuine. Ultimately in that sense Malignant is rather unknowable. Although for the sake of this review I have decided to myself to believe that Wan knew wholeheartedly his intention, I can’t completely believe it. Malignant is so enjoyably odd in that way that you really can’t look away.
Without discussing spoilers Malignant may seem like an impossible film, that the thing that I’m describing currently could never be, such a beast where intentions and tonality are at a constant battle with one another though-out. But Maligant is a real movie and you can watch it now. For long periods you will be bored. For extended stretches you will be amazed, or rather in dumbfounded awe at what you’re seeing, but ultimately and rather undeniably you will enjoy yourself, whether you are laughing hysterically intentionally or not. When it comes to performances, the only word that I can really utter in regards to praise would be ‘conviction’. In so many ways if it were not for this conviction, on the half of the performers and on the half of the wonderful creative (if all over the place) camera-work from Wan, then Malignant would most certainly fail. Malignant is audacious, whacky, goofy, not really scary, but by God and I mean this sincerely, it’s one of the most enjoyable final acts of a film I’ve seen in a cinema in a long time.
A bizarre 5/10 experiment in big budget horror from Wan who has managed to the bring the slickness and money of a huge Conjuring film to more or less a remake of the schlock cult classic Basket-Case. It’s this truly bizarre combination of studio horror movie-making and down and dirty plot, dialogue and characters that make Malignant certainly one of the most surprising and enjoyable movie going experiences of the year, even if it’s really not one of the best.
P.S. At that reveal moment, I audibly gasped (albeit alone in the cinema) “Aw f*ck yes, here we go”. Both a high and a low moment.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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