Malignant
James Wan might be one of my favorite filmmakers working now. He’s grown into a filmmaker capable of both low-budget and mega-budget thrills and visions, and he might be the most fascinating world builder in the horror cinema currently working. (Mike Flanagan is not far behind, though.) His most recent film, “Malignant,” feels like a summation of what he’s done to date in the horror genre, while also being one of the most unique visions in the genre. This one is completely up my alley.
I was a bit late to “Saw,” but the further we get away from it, it’s interesting to see how he still manages to be informed by it in his stylistic approach to the genre. Certainly, the “Insidious” and “The Conjuring” films are more in the realm of traditional horror concepts, but Wan’s visual approach in editing and camera angles still feel of a piece with the grimy, low-budget energy of that 2004 thriller. In “Malignant,” that continues, but this time, he asks his long-time composer, Joseph Bishara, to create something musically that feels familiar to the genre, but also with the same dirty guitar metal sensibilities that have come to define that long-running franchise. The result is akin to his first post-“Saw” works, “Dead Silence” and “Death Sentence,” and “Malignant” is better for it.
The film begins in 1993 in a hospital. A patient is out of control, and the orderlies and security have them cornered. The patient’s doctor (Jacqueline McKenzie), manages to sedate them, and have them strapped down. Emergency surgery needs to be done, less this continue for the patient. If you pay attention to the opening credits, you may be able to figure out what’s going to be revealed, but when we transition to the present day, we see a young, pregnant woman, Madison (Annabelle Wallis), come home to her husband, who’s watching TV. She just wants to rest, though; this is her latest pregnancy, but none of her other ones have come to term. Anxiety is high, and her husband (Jake Abel) is on edge, as well. He gets violent with Madison, whom locks the door behind him. That night, something happens that leaves her husband dead, her in the hospital, and another miscarriage. With the signs of abuse, and no forced entry, it looks like Madison has killed him. That’s just the beginning of the usual events that will follow Madison at this point in her life, and result in her having to uncover her past for answers.
I worry that that, in and of itself, is too much to reveal about “Malignant,” but there has to be a baseline set for the film, and that feels like the bare minimum that should be revealed about the movie. Madison’s story starts as that of a woman whom was in an abusive relationship, and is now free, but the trauma remains, and unlocks further trauma, and questions, about her past. The supernatural aspect of the movie is built up carefully, and deliberately, by Wan, as we ask early on, “What did that early scene in 1993 have to do with Madison’s story?” We get a hint of an answer as the film progresses, but when the truth is revealed, it is shocking, and thrillingly realized on-screen by Wan and his collaborators. I do not have a good grasp on the cinematic inspirations that Wan is working from in this case, but the film that it results in is his most inventively told since “Insidious,” and his most brutal since “Death Sentence.” How those two predecessors collide is an evolution for Wan as a visual storyteller, and it’s exciting to see play out. Everything we’ve seen ahead of time cannot prepare you for the vicious, visionary terror Wan unleashes by the end. This is easily one of his best films to date.
