‘It’s time to cut out the cancer...’
As an annoyingly self-styled horror aficionado, I should be fully onboard the James Wan train. As the co-creator of the Saw franchise and the sole creator of both Insidious and The Conjuring, Wan has done as much as anyone to bring horror movies kicking and screaming into the limelight. And yet… while I love the Saw movies and have a grudging respect for the first Insidious entry, I find The Conjuring franchise to be vastly overrated. Malignant, Wan’s return to the genre following his brief dalliance in the world of comic book movies (Aquaman) is not part of The Conjuring franchise and boy, does it show…
Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis) is tormented by grisly visions of violent murders. Comforted by her sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson) and a sympathetic detective (George Young), it is surely only a matter of time before Madison’s murky past catches up with her.
So far, so generic. Stock characters, telegraphed plot points and the usual mix of camera trickery and jumpscares. What sets Malignant apart from the rest of Wan’s output, and it really is the only thing to elevate the material here, is the twist that dominates the third act. The big reveal is audacious enough to ensure that it flirts with both unintended hilarity and utter disaster without ever fully succumbing to either. In fact, it just about works, and even if it’ll be too grotesque for some, there is no doubting the dark power that Wan draws on here. Malignant is many things but forgettable it is emphatically not. This is an original work, a genuinely original idea from a man who revolutionised horror forever when he chained Cary Elwes to a radiator all those years ago.
It remains to be seen whether Malignant will be remembered as more than just a breathtakingly distorted gimmick but its sheer power and demented energy cannot be denied. I’m not really sure how much I enjoyed Malignant, even though as I write this I have had a few days to think about it, and that indecision is usually a sign that something is either very good or very bad… come back to me in a month or so. Just don’t make me watch it again.