phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2022

Malignant



IMDb Info

Release Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 51m
Country: USA, China
Language: English
Genre Tags: Crime, Horror, Mystery
Plot Summary: Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.

Poster - Title Card


phancy.com rating:

phancy.com notes: I resisted watching this because the hype seemed a little much, and it was. This is a monster movie with a monster budget, made for people who don't really like horror movies, but will see whatever the new big thing the movie theatre is playing. No judgment. I am just not the target audience. This movie had way too big of a budget, and way too much padding. The score was hilariously in your face the entire time, including a creepy synth version of "Where Is My Mind?" It reminded of cheesy straight-to-video schlock from the late 80s, early 90s, but with more money behind it. I've probably watched all the same things James Wan has, as none of the twists were surprising to me, I never felt remotely tense, and was always two steps ahead of the story. It felt like I was watching a soap opera or a Hallmark movie, just with extra violence and gore. I straight up laughed out loud at a bunch of dialogue, especially at the end. All that said, I enjoyed the killer's rampage through the police station. More of that, please. There's a better version of this movie that's 30 minutes shorter, even stupider and more violent, but also better. I want Stuart Gordon's version from 1992.


Outside Reviews:

Simon Abrams
1 out of 4 stars - rogerebert.com

There's a dopey twist at the end of and a lot of dead air throughout "Malignant," a 111-minute long possession thriller about a woman who's haunted by a vindictive killer who may or may not be her imaginary childhood friend. Admittedly, the movie's twist could have been the basis for something lurid and fun instead of over-produced and underdone. But "Malignant," the latest horror movie directed by James Wan ("The Conjuring"), hangs around whenever it most needs to push its pokey plot along. Prioritizing atmosphere over plot development is one thing, but loitering about such a visually uninspired space (sorry, Seattle) can be pretty frustrating, especially in a psychodrama built around an underdeveloped heroine and her mostly implied backstory.


A.A. Dowd
Grade: B - James Wan returns to the funhouse with the nutty, gnarly Malignant

Wan's new movie, Malignant, is more ride than symphony. But it's a ride to remember. The film returns its director to his original genre wheelhouse after a stint in the CGI waters of comic-book cinema. The opening frames make that lurch back onto land literal, as we skim the surface of a choppy sea to find a surely haunted hospital looming on the cliffside above like a Transylvanian manor. Over the two hours that follow, Wan will riffle through his bag of tricks with a renewed sense of diabolical purpose: zooming through peepholes, leering from the inside of washing machines, ripping down hallways, pushing invasively into the pale faces of his actors. When a gust of wind blows back the curtain of an open window, revealing the towering specter it was previously concealing, you can almost see the superimposed skeleton grin of the director, cackling through his rudimentary but expertly timed gag.