Malignant
Director: James Wan
Screenwriter: Akela Cooper
Cinematographer: Michael Burgess
Production Companies: New Line Cinema, Starlight Media Inc., My Entertainment Inc., Atomic Monster Productions
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures
Release Date: 10 September 2021
Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes
MPA Rating: R
Availability: Theaters, HBO Max
Synopsis
If you’ve been experiencing severe headaches lately, Malignant may encourage you to schedule a doctor’s appointment. The movie begins with Madison (Annabelle Wallis), an expecting mother living with her abusive husband, Derek (Jake Abel). A traumatic event brings Madison’s sister, Sydney (Maddie Hasson), back into her life, as well as the attention of detectives Kekoa Shaw (George Young) and Regina Moss (Michole Briana White). The event also seems to awaken Gabriel, a “Boogeyman” figure who quickly goes on a string of gruesome murders that Madison can somehow observe remotely. She soon tries to uncover the missing fragments of her past to determine the reason for this “psychic connection”. However, the closer Madison gets to the truth, the more dangerous and strange life becomes for her and everyone else.
Analysis
I really liked the level of detail that went into Gabriel’s design. It’s disturbing yet simple enough to make the viewer feel uneasy rather than overstimulated. This is because his form is clearly human yet noticeably contorted: every single body part appears to be oriented backward. Even just looking at Gabriel is painful because you can’t help but imagine how much stress your own body would be under if it was shaped like his. Gabriel’s awkward orientation thus makes watching him move highly jarring. His movements feel unnatural, to say the least, since they give off the impression of someone doing everything literally from behind their back. He’s also extremely fast, agile, and lethal, which not only makes the viewer even more disturbed but also helps sell the idea that he’s a force to be reckoned with rather than scoffed at. His physique and nimbleness make his kills unique and brutal, and there’s one fast-paced killing spree in the third act that felt like a horrific take on John Wick. And even though it’s a minor feature, I thought that his voice was effectively intimidating as well. The amount of malice and aggression channeled through his speech greatly adds to the suspense and increases the audience’s level of anxiety.
The film’s score and cinematography establish a good balance of tension and humor. The movie expertly uses music to set a campy-horror tone. An oppressive ensemble of high-pitched violins couples suspenseful scenes, and a propulsive score accompanies scenes that include surprising revelations. This technique has two main effects: it increases the audience’s level of anxiety or surprise during a given moment and pokes fun at what’s happening. The film also adopts a comedic style of cinematography to make viewers overly paranoid. There are several scenes where the camera fixates on a specific area to convince the viewer that the threat will come from there, only to then focus on another location and continue the cycle. This was a great way to keep the audience on their toes and inject humor into the building up of tension.
The movie also employs various elements to demonstrate how very self-aware it is. Several significant revelations occur throughout the film, with each one proving to be more ridiculous than the last. What makes these reveals all the more comedic are the dramatic ways characters disclose them, with their straight-faced deliveries consisting of cheesy lines and long pauses. And while the latter revelations certainly require a significant suspension of disbelief, it never gets to the point where the plot becomes too convoluted or the movie feels like a parody. The movie hilariously places characters in dangerous environments where they act incredibly reckless. Some characters will flail their arms around in dark and potentially hazardous locations after hearing a mysterious noise and won’t even turn on a flashlight. Others will go into classic don’t-go-in-there areas of their own volition, including the basement of a literal abandoned mental institution. Located on a cliff. At midnight. Alone. Gratuitous violence also makes the movie exceptionally over-the-top. This tone results from effects like the breaking of limbs left and right, large amounts of blood gushing from victims, and cheesy lines being delivered to lend overdramatic weight to kills. So while there’s a great buildup of tension leading up to each kill, the kills feel more entertaining rather than morbid.
Despite all the areas that the film excels in, having a solid third act isn’t one of them. Take the previously mentioned John Wick-esque action sequence, for instance. While the scene was exceptionally fast-paced, action-heavy, and violent, it felt very out of place in a cheesy horror flick. The sequence also gives no reason to fear Gabriel; in fact, you sort of end up rooting for him because of his impressive feats. The third act also fails to provide a satisfying end to Madison’s “arc”. I put arc in quotes because the film doesn’t really give her one to speak of: Madison merely encounters various revelations that primarily flesh out Gabriel and her relationship with him, rather than provide any additional insights into her character. The movie thus spends its last few minutes of runtime trying to show how the events of the film have changed Madison, but this supposed growth feels cheap and unearned. And since a protagonist’s arc usually advances the movie’s theme(s), the lack of attention paid to Madison’s arc until the very end also made the theme feel like an after-thought.
Conclusion
All in all, I think you’ll have a great time watching Malignant. It features a visually unique and malicious antagonist, and successfully marries horror with comedic self-awareness through various methods. The third act may be oddly structured, but its flaws don’t detract from all the great things the movie has going for it. Try your best to catch it in theaters and have fun squirming at one moment and laughing the next.