Rest assured, there is nothing benign about this one. (Tumor puns!)
There are a few reasons why I consider the 80’s the greatest decade for horror, but I think the biggest one is a sense of unpredictability. It’s as if the powers that be wouldn’t dare sully their delicate sensibilities by engaging with horror cinema, so filmmakers in the genre had free reign to bring their unadulterated nightmares to life. Frequently, that freedom didn’t amount to much more than some head-scratching moments, but even the movies of least artistic merit offered the potential for something novel. In many ways the average quality of horror filmmaking has never been greater than it has over the past decade, but it does seem to lack that idea that absolutely anything could happen. James Wan is perhaps the foremost director of modern horror cinema, and his catalogue pretty much typifies this “predictable but well crafted” aesthetic. Until now. While Malignant maintains Wan’s high bar for craft, it also reminds me somewhat of idiosyncratic 80’s auteurs like Stuart Gordan (Castle Freak, Reanimator) and Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker, Basket Case). I’m mostly talking about what happens in the third act, though, so I’ll have to remain coy about precisely what I mean. Rest assured, though, its a welcome development here in 2021!
The story of Malignant centers on Madison, a pregnant woman in an abusive relationship. She seems to have a psychic link with a murderous monster named Gabriel, and when he takes a new victim with his badass gold dagger, she is treated to a front row seat in her mind’s eye. After realizing that the murders that she’s dreaming about are real, Madison and her sister go to the police to offer clues, leading them to discover new bodies and even an encounter with the gruesome but cagey Gabriel. A lot of the mystery hinges on precisely what type of spirit, demon, or psychopath Gabriel is, and what his link is to Madison. The film leads you down the path far enough that you are liable to guess at the big twist in very general terms, but the specific details and execution of the plot mechanics are where it veers into that sweet, sweet 80’s-style insanity.
Wan is a deliberate and savvy director. He never fails to build a rock solid foundation for his projects: Thoughtful framing of each scene, expert pacing, an intelligent blend of CGI and practical effects that makes the most out of each medium. I don’t want to undersell those qualities, because Lord knows I watch enough horror that fails at each one of those aspects to ever take high-caliber filmmaking for granted. For me, though, Malignant rises above something like the highly entertaining Insidious because it isn’t afraid to be a little audacious, a little silly, dare I say a little old school in its machinations. I treasure that, and I hope that audiences make this film a big success so that Wan has incentive to bring his talents to more and more outrageous concepts.
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