Malignant

Malignant

Director ~ James Wan

Writers ~ James Wan, Ingrid Bisu, Akela Cooper

2021, USA-China

Stars ~ Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young

I suppose there is camp value, but right from the off there is neglible acting and dialogue, and after the credits, we get set-pieces that haven’t earnt any of our intellectual or emotional investment. It’s slick with the camerawork overcompensating for the rudimentary horror shenanigans. A pleasingly showy overhead shot of our protagonist running through the house, but which leads to nothing; giallo homages; random Roxy Music; wafer-thin characters and dialogue; a fairly engrossing/bonkers chase that owes more to superhero physicality; and then ….

 

Hahaha! Well, it’s one of those films where the craziness of the last act makes up for all the underwhelment that preceded. It’s that last act that means everything and it’s likely, if you’re a horror fan, that you’ll be grinning at the audacity. For this alone, it’s the most satisfied and least insulted I’ve been by a James Wan film since ‘Saw’ (his style is too pantomime for my taste). Of course, it doesn’t make a lick of sense, it’s all resolved with weak speechifying and sentimentality, and it's not particularly good, but by then the pleasure has been had.