Malignant - Cheap Thoughts

A time-honoured tradition when a filmmaker provides a major studio with a big box-office success is the promise of a future project where they can have as much creative freedom that they want with as much money as they want. James Wan is without argument one of the most influential directors in the Horror genre of the 21^st century, spear-heading iconic franchises such as Saw and The Conjuring, even his lesser works like Insidious somehow become recognisable staples. With that being said, Malignant might be his most inventive and engaging horror movie yet, certainly the loudest if that means anything to you.

From the opening scene, Wan sets the tone of the exact movie you’re in for, a violent, supernatural colourful film with an unexplainable yet engaging hook that you’re dying to know more about. The rest of the film carries that over splendidly, the lead performance of Annabelle Wallis offers such range of emotions that she can be put up alongside all the other iconic horror film performances that should (but inevitably won’t) be nominated for an Oscar. A character that has suffered severe trauma, and now in her darkest hour she finds herself at the centre of a disturbing mystery. She carries the film as an empathetic yet disturbed character, though that is not to take away from Wan’s direction.

This is definitely the most experimental Wan has gotten with his directing style. The way he moves the camera with slow purpose to build suspense, presenting unconventional angles to either show or hide as much as the audience needs like the best storytellers in horror. Heck, even the action movies of his filmography don’t use the camera as well as this film does during it’s minimal yet effective action beats. His command of colour to bring style, a blend of practical and visual effects, it all comes together to give this film an old-school campy vibe of a bygone era -best supported through Joseph Bishara sharp and clinging score - yet never to the point of becoming predictable in its plot, because while yes, the film does establish an interesting mystery, you will definitely not see where its going. Malignant is well aware that this is not your first horror movie, characters will walk around in dark empty rooms knowing exactly when and where you expect the scare to come from, and it subverts you just enough times -but not everytime-to create genuine tension. After all a film that features a character entering an abandoned psychiatric hospital in the middle of the night *alone* is certainly going to be a set-up that comes with expectations.

There’s not much else to say without giving away too much of Malignant, it’s a film that’s better to go into with as little information as possible, all you need to know is that across the board the film just works. The performances, the visuals, the music, the themes. It’s a smart, well-crafted work of Horror and it’s the best Wan has given so far, which encouraging to believe he’s still not done and will hopefully offer even better work in the future.

-Danny