As a horror enthusiast, I believe it is my duty to watch horror movies and give my personal take on them. I have consumed so much horror within the last month that it would put all those mukbang channels to shame. The Fear Street trilogy, White Noise, and even Event Horizon although that last one is not really a horror but more of a psychological thriller...but you get the point. So I’m pretty sure you can already tell how happy I was when I learned that James Wan had made another horror movie that wasn’t a part of The Conjuring Universe. So what did I do on a boring Tuesday night with no nothing else to do other than watch paint dry...you guessed it I watched Friends...and then I watched Malignant. Oh yes this movie is bad but the bad that’s not really “bad.”
First let’s start with our main protagonist Maddie who is pregnant but her shitty boyfriend unexpectedly passes away. Maddie then learns she has a strange connection with the way her boyfriend dies and then it delves into her past and we learn of a mysterious name “Gabriel.” That’s all I’m saying on the plot but the twist when it all comes together will leave you on the edge of your seat. The characters are a little more “campy” but they pull it off to be less cheesy. There are so many zoom-in shots of characters saying something before the music pours in dramatically for them to say some cheesy one liner...and it’s fantastic.
Even though the plot will keep you going, what kept drawing me into the movie was the music production. Whenever the killer entered a scene it played this track that was both dreadful and exciting. I was so scared of him when he came on screen but I also wanted to keep seeing him on screen so I could listen to more of that music track. There are other great tracks in the movie but that is the one that stuck out to me the most.
James Wan definitely must have had so much leeway in this movie because he definitely got the chance to shine his cinematography. There are so many cool shots in this movie that you would never really get the chance to see in a Conjuring movie. One scene that stands out to me of this is when Maddie is going around the house and locking all of the doors and the camera is overhead panning from left to right to follow the action and you see the bottom floor and the top floor as she is zipping across the floor. Although it was one scene, the shot was just so different from anything he’s done that I couldn’t help but smile when I saw it.
I went into Malignant thinking it was going to be a bad movie with nothing to note from it. If it was, this would have been a very different review. Turns out, James Wan wanted to have a little bit of fun and creative freedom and out came this precious gem that I employ everyone to take a chance at and watch.