Malignant Movie Review: A terrific ending saves this film

Though James Wan’s latest release is burdened with some poor writing choices, its gory, intense second half makes you forgive what comes earlier

Bhuvanesh Chandar

(Originally published on 10th September 2021)

How deep can a blood connection go? For most creators, this idea would result in a family-friendly film. However, James Wan, the architect behind horror thrillers like the Saw series, Insidious series, The Conjuring series and Lights Out, is inspired to make people shake in terror. The result? Malignant. This latest horror film feels like the result of a cosmic dinner session between Wan, Ari Aster, Banjong Pisanthanakun, and Scott Derrickson.

Malignant opens by showing us workers at a research facility struggle to anaesthetize a monster. This is where we get introduced to our lead character, Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis), a woman who is attempting to cope with her repeated miscarriage. After a mysterious entity attacks Madison and her abusive partner, the former keeps seeing visions of three brutal murders of three specific individuals. The hidden secrets are revealed by Maddie’s sister Sydney Lake (Maddie Hasson) and detective Kekoa Shaw (George Young), while Maddie gets reminded of a familiar demon from her past.

Is this a creature-meets-a-demon film? Well…

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE:

https://www.cinemaexpress.com/english/review/2021/sep/10/malignant-movie-review-a-terrific-ending-saves-this-film-26568.html