Malignant (2021)

Malignant leans far into the camp side of the horror genre. The opening scene appears to be paying homage to D-List movies by being corny without creating any sense of realism. Director Wan runs fill tilt into it and finds a beautiful cinematic language to tell his little tale with. He is a talent at making beautiful movies. Malignant asks you to sign on to silliness in a way that you'll either buy into or you won't. For those that buy in it will be a fun ride or violence and "twists" but for those who want it's a whole lot of eye rolling and not a lot of scares. 

The performances are all played heightened, like in a high school play or something. The cues to who the characters are is overly simplistic and telegraphed. Wan is playing into a certain kind of film. It's not bad, just a certain style that has to be appreciated to get it. His story needs it, as the film's plot gets more and more bonkers as it goes. To get us to his ending he needs us to throw all reason out the door. 

This is the sort of horror that is for laughing. It makes us jump and provides the adrenaline rush that is soothing. It provides catharsis through making things we are afraid of silly so we can dismiss them. There is a long tradition of this and Wan is theatrical in his handling of this. This a grand tradition and again, in itself, isn't a bad thing at all. For what it is doing it works. It's just not the sort of thing that pushes my buttons and gives me much satisfaction. 

I tend to be drawn to contemplative horror which explores our fears in more upsetting ways, perhaps not giving us the out of being able to laugh at it all. I like it when the fear bubbles closer to the realism and day to day life. That's scarier for me. But that's me. And it's not a perfect rule. Films break this for me all the time. Malignant didn't for me. For me it dragged. For me it's forgettable. For me it is rather benign. None of that means it can't be fun for the right audience. 

Malignant

Starring: Annabelle Wallis, Mckenna Grace, George Young, Zoe Bell, Ray Chase

Director: James Wan

Writer: Akela Cooper