REVIEW: The Admirable Insanity of James Wan's MALIGNANT
ANNABELLE WALLIS and MADDIE HASSON in a scene from MALIGNANT. Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
When I was 13, I remember going to the Moxie Festival in Lisbon, Maine, the very town where STEPHEN KING attended high school. It seemed appropriate that one of the biggest horror writers of our generation would go to school in a town that celebrates a root beer-like soda that tastes more like Cthulhu’s armpit dipped in cane sugar and sadness. At that festival I went on a ride called The Rotor, which I don’t even think exists anymore, because even back then it was considered dangerous by carny standards - it’s no surprise that a German engineer designed and patented it (I’m part German, so I have no problem shading my ancestors). Essentially, the ride worked like a human blender, as the participants would stand in a circle inside the vessel, their backs against the wall. The ride would begin to spin, and upon hitting maximum speed, the floor would drop out from underneath the riders, keeping their bodies pinned to the wall by nothing by centripetal force.
I remember feeling baffled that there were no safety harnesses, no handles to hold on to - that basically, if anything went wrong, we were all screwed. Once the ride started, I felt my adrenaline surge as I looked at all my fellow passengers, who all were looking around in that kind of smiling trepidation people get when they are about to embark on something unknown and potentially dangerous. Once we started to really pick up speed, I managed a glance down as I saw the floor starting to fall away from under my feet. Something dropped in the pit of my stomach, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it, since I was pinned to the padded wall like some kind of Buffalo Bill moth specimen. I couldn’t hear anything but the wind roaring through my ears, the elated screams of my fellow riders, and the feeling of pure exhilaration coursing through my body. It was wild and out of control and an absolute blast.
ANNABELLE WALLIS plays Madison, a woman haunted by visions of grisly murders. Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
It’s rare nowadays that horror fans get a film that gives us that feeling. So many big studio horror films seem to be trying so hard to cultivate an aesthetic, through slow-burn storytelling and gorgeous, yet composed cinematography. The fear of a box office flop is real for them, especially when it comes to the horror genre. With the long arm of Covid still ensnaring our normalcy in its relentless grip, the stakes for a hit film are now even greater for the studios. The cost for shooting is higher as safety measures for cast and crew have exponentially increased, and there are less butts in the seats in the theaters, which has left many studios forced to offer a VOD option as well as an in-theater release to try and recoup as much of that green as possible.
It’s precisely this reason that makes JAMES WAN’s new film, MALIGNANT so revolutionary in many ways for the times we are living in. In the film, a woman (played by ANNABELLE WALLIS) is suddenly plagued by shocking visions of murders, her torment only worsening as she discovers these waking dreams are actually terrifying realities. If that synopsis feels purposefully vague, it is - this is the kind of film you have to go into blind and without the benefit of a safety net.
With a cold open that feels like it would have been at home in the 1999 film, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, we go into our main story, following Madison (ANNABELLE WALLIS) who is pregnant and married to a violent, controlling, UFC-watching douchecanoe named Derek (JAKE ABELL), who may or may not be responsible for several of her past miscarriages. After a particularly violent episode with Derek, Madison starts to have strange, phantasmagorical visions of gory murders, committed by a disfigured, long-haired person in a leather trench coat and black gloves, who we eventually learn is named Gabriel. We wonder why Gabriel seems to be connected to Madison, and why he also seems to be targeting doctors from the hospital facility we saw in the opening of the film. Add in a couple of detectives, Kekoa (GEORGE YOUNG) and Regina (MICHOLE BRIANA WHITE), who looks like a much angrier WANDA SYKES, and the film starts to go down a wild, investigative wormhole, getting stranger and more banoonies crazy in the process.
The killer’s extravagant weapon of choice in MALIGNANT. Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
As the film starts to pick up speed, so do the kills and wow, there are some KILLS in this movie. Earlier this month, in an interview with Bloody-Disgusting.com, Wan said that the film would be his own unique take on the giallo horror sub-genre, taking it more towards the wilder, supernatural giallo films of the past: “I would say that when I reference [DARIO] ARGENTO, I don’t necessarily reference his classics like DEEP RED or SUSPIRIA,” he said. “I would reference more like TRAUMA, PHENOMENA, TENEBRAE, some of these later ones just because they’ve got more and more out there, if you will, for lack of better description. And I felt like that’s the spirit of this.”
Yes, there is a spirit of giallo in this film, from the color washes, to the black-gloved killer, to the woman with a past trauma who nobody believes is seeing these visions, but Wan smartly sidesteps overt mimicry and goes straight for balls-out outrageousness. There are blood sprays galore, multiple compound fractures, and the end? Well, let’s just say the end could give the House of Blue Leaves scene in KILL BILL VOL. 1 a run for its money.
MCKENNA GRACE in a scene from MALIGNANT. Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
The initial lack of clarity in the film is ultimately what helps it to finally pay off in a wild and frenetically silly way. Wan deliberately holds back on some of these elements early on, so those who shut off the film 30 minutes in will sadly never be privy to the outrageous, swing-for-the-fences ending that is by turns, both magnificently campy and downright bizarre.
Wan throws a host of familiar horror and action shadings onto the canvas with all the nuance of JACKSON POLLOCK on Benzedrine-fueled bender. Nods to films like THE MATRIX, BASKET CASE, THE DARK HALF, TWINS OF EVIL, and directors like DAVID CRONENBERG, MARIO BAVA, SAM RAIMI and BRIAN DePALMA are there, but subtle enough so that “real” horror fans will feel triumphant in their clocking of them. One criticism of the film is that it’s TOO niche in its feel and references, that it leaves the traditional, non-horror viewers out of the party. To that, I say tough shit. Wan has paid his dues to you all, making THE CONJURING franchise into a $2 billion dollar horror cash cow, and the messy AQUAMAN into a $1 billion dollar win for DC. It is precisely those films that allowed Wan to walk into Warner Brothers, pitch an absolute bonkers of a film premise, and walk out with a $40 million dollar budget. To say this film is an anomaly is an understatement. It is downright insane that this movie got made with the budget and big studio backing it did, because it feels like those fantastic horror films from the 80’s and 90’s that seem like they got funded while people were doing lines of coke off of a long, mahogany conference room table.
MALIGNANT is one big damn flex from JAMES WAN, and only proves that when the big-studio-notes leash is taken off his neck, he can produce something so buck wild and fun to watch. Because MALIGNANT is fun. It’s by no means a perfect film, and there are some missed opportunities for Wan to lean all the way in on the crazy body horror, but there is always the sense that Wan knows exactly what he wants to accomplish with this film, and though the film does touch on heavy issues such as latent trauma and domestic abuse, it is a joy to watch. There is joy in the absurdity of it, in the nonsensical nature of it. It’s purely wild and unsafe in a way that most horror films aren’t anymore, and just like that carnival ride I took when I was thirteen, it’s best enjoyed when you just let the floor fall away and lean into the breakneck, spinning force of the unknown.
JAMES WAN takes the viewer on a wild ride in MALIGNANT. Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
My Rating: 7.5/10
Where to Watch:
MALIGNANT is currently available to watch in selected theaters nationwide and on HBOMax.
