Malignant - Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

The Horror genre has been around for so long and provided us with scares aplenty, but original ideas are more difficult to find these days with sequels, prequels and reboots providing a decent portion of the market for thrills. Even if a film isn't able to bring something amazing, new, fresh and original to the table, there's still different ways to put spins on things to keep them interesting and engaging. That is exactly what the new horror film Malignant on HBO Max is able to do. While it does provide some interesting twists, turns and reveals as it goes, if you're a huge horror buff you'll probably see some of them coming. But where this film succeeds is trying new things, things I don't believe I've ever seen before in a horror film and while some of it is conventional, it's fun, paced well and offers a few jump scares and creeps that'll crawl under your skin like a Malignant . . . . oh that's just too much.

SYNOPSIS - This spook show predictably starts at a psychiatric research facility where a Dr. Weaver (Jacqueline McKenzie) is treating young patients, one of whom, Gabriel, has some mysterious powers and can control electricity. One night Gabriel goes on a rampage and kills several hospital workers. Twenty-seven years later we're introduced to the films central character, pregnant Madison Lake (Annabelle Wallis) and her husband Derek (Jake Abel) who have a bit of a spat and things become physical to the point where Derek pushes her and she smacks her head against a wall. She locks herself in the bedroom and falls asleep, leaving her husband to sleep downstairs on the sofa, only to have his sweet dreams interrupted by an unwelcome nighttime visitor. Madison comes to investigate and is chased back to her room by the intruder where she falls and is knocked out. She wakes the next morning in a hospital bed where her little sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson) explains that she lost the baby. Two police officers, Shaw (George Young) and Moss (Michole White) come to see what she knows about the attack and what happened to her husband. Madison returns home and has a visually stunning room transforming vision/dream of the killer visiting Dr. Weaver, the doc from the hospital at the start and plot points begin to come together.

By the time the madness has subsided and all the dead people have stopped twitching, we’ve wound our way through a wild ride of filmmaking. Usually these types of movies are front loaded on the horror, with the film progressively declining in it’s frights when they reveal the creature, demon or whatever is causing mayhem. But after the thrills slow Malignant doesn't push on and rely on it's twists and turns to keep the audience engaged, there's some very nice action scenes and one impressive sequence in particular reminded me of something out of a Matrix movie. Other than the impressive computer graphics, the set and production design throughout the film are equally impressive. I must also shout out the fantastic score and sound design which add layers to the spooky scenes and help amplify the mood and tone the film is shooting for. Annabelle Wallis is a stabilizing force and even though some of her dialogue and the screenplay gets a bit cheesy, Malignant is able to do an excellent job navigating the waters between wanting to be serious but also having quite a bit of campy fun on the way.

SUMMARY - This film is not anything great as far as horror or cinema are concerned, but it’s well constructed, has some decent scares, a great pace even though it pushes two hours and juggles film genres effectively in a fun and creative way. You probably won’t be blown away but you may be surprised how high it’s entertainment value stays after the startles subside, the action picks up and just like a cancer, find that Malignant grows on you.