I first should point out this is my first review in a few years for various reasons that I won’t bore you with. However James Wan’s new horror film Malignant is so silly that it’s pulled me back into the cutthroat world of movie blogs.

Going into Malignant you get the sense that this is another haunted house supernatural thriller however the feeling slowly changes as Wan opens his wee bag of weird classic Italian horrors. The Giallo influence is all over the screen with the use of red lighting, close up shots of eyes, and voyeuristic murders. As fun as these references are though Wan appears to have enough respect for the genre to push the influence into the screenplay as well as the visuals.

The basic story is that Madison (Annabelle Wallis) is a woman with a mysterious childhood who is drawn into a murder mystery as she begins to have visions of murders taking place around Seattle. It’s a fine basis for a horror film and it chugs along in a fun but generic kind of way. Then shit gets insane…

When I say Malignant takes a sharp turn into crazy town I mean it sticks it’s big Italian shoe down on the pedal and goes full nuts. I won’t spoil it but there’s a reveal half way through the film that will either make you puke or laugh your head off. I think I did both. There’s even what I hope is a tribute to the best scene from Maniac Cop 2.

Malignant is what The Invisible Man would have been with a bigger budget and no restraint at all. There’s no subtext here, no issues are being challenged, it’s full-on schlock and if you can suppress the part of your brain that yearns for things to make sense you’ll have a great time.

7/10

If you enjoyed this review let me know and i’ll try to write more. Hoping to start writing more so I might see you all back here!

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