Malignant (2021)

Originally viewed on October 13, 2021

Malignant is a James Wan film who curiously has a comic strip also named Malignant but apparently this is separate. The very first scene in set in 1993 takes place in a hospital and the acting is terrible. It makes you feel like it's a parody or a b-movie. The movie then moves to the current day where we meet Madison who is pregnant and has an abusive boyfriend/husband who smacks the back of her head against the wall and this is the catalyst for everything that happens in the movie.

The crime scene woman is played by Ingrid Bisu who co-wrote the story and is also James Wan’s wife and that explains why someone who looks so out of place in the film managed to get such a prominent role. There is also a bit where she is in the evidence room, hides when Maidson is running wild and then thats it. The scene with the cancer monster fighting all the cops was silly but I have to say it was well done. I did think a the end when Madison is free that it wouldn't be the end of the story for her because the police wouldn't let her go and even if they did then the families of all the dead police officers would not let it rest.

I don't often talk about houses in my review but this film used a house which was very similar to most houses that appear in James Wan films and at one stage me and my friend think that its the film from Insidious but it's not. Also the woman is in the attic and it turns out that its the attic in Madison’s house. When she fell through into the living room it was quite a good reveal but that's about it as far as good things to say about the house because the smoke machine was being overused to make the house seem interesting. 

The whole idea that something is growing out of the back of Maidson’s head that is like a tumor that is using her mind is quite good and the whole surgery is quite grim and gory and it seems out of place because the rest of the film seems like a Insidious/Conjuring type film. I think that had the film been gory for most of the film then it would have worked out better but the tone is all over the place.

The final act makes up for the film although I saw it with a friend who called the big reveal quite early on in the film. The jail cell scene was really good because it was the first time that the film did anything interesting. The hospital room seen is laughably bad because the sister’s acting is terrible and slightly undoes the good work in the previous couple scenes and is reduced to plot exposition by going through tapes and sneaking into the abandoned hospital.

Malignant is a very strange film. This is the weakest James Wan film but when you’ve made a billion dollars with Aquaman then you can probably get away with make substandard stuff like Malignant. Definitely disappointing.