Directed By:
James Wan
Written By:
Ingrid Bisu, James Wan, Akela Cooper
Starring:
Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young
Genre:
Crime, Horror, Mystery
Rated: R for strong horror violence and gruesome images, and for language.
‘Malignant’ came out a couple weeks ago, and it still sticks with me. With Utah, Warner Brothers decided to forego any advanced screening, nor was there ANY Thursday night showings (almost unheard of in my limited experience). I already felt the rush of adrenaline as tweets came through insisting, even threatening people to not spoil the ending, but strongly recommending people check it out. I went the first showing that Friday.
Directed by James Wan, ‘Malignant’ is a return to his horror roots from ‘Furious 7’ and ‘Aquaman’. Centered around Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis) who after suffering an extremely traumatic events, starts to see visions and a presence in her house. Her sister and friends are all in danger, but will Madison be able to understand her visions enough to save them, or herself?
Still, you should not go see a trailer for this and definitely go in knowing as little as possible. While maybe ‘Malignant’ isn’t coherent in parts, and there are some pretty clunky dialogue throughout, this will likely be one of the top watched horror films of 2021. I think the performances were great, the physicality and movements of some characters was great.
James Wan knows what he wants and uses everything in his directors tool belt to give us something spectacular in the end. I cannot tell you how much I loved the entire third act of the film. It’s out of left field, bold, and completely batshit in all the best ways. Definitely check this out in a theater if you can, and get ready to be listening to The Pixies a lot!
