Malignant (James Wan)

[Dukefrukem]

https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimagese rve%2F613b089c26fb0e186fcd4264 %2F-Malignant-%2F1960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale

[Dukefrukem]

This was fucking awesome.

[Spun Lepton]

7/10 for me. Things start getting a bit silly in the third act and the CG just kind of enhances the silliness. Not bad though.

[Peng]

IT'S TIME WE CUT OUT THE CANCER

[Scar]

I mean, it’s not a bad movie. But I just wasn’t feeling it. I chuckle a bit at the gonzo craziness at the end, but I’m not totally feeling it. I’ll give it a mild yay, but not something that will be added to the collection.

[megladon8]

Is this free with HBO Max or are you all paying to rent it?

[Scar]

Is this free with HBO Max or are you all paying to rent it?

Free on HBO Max until Oct 10 I believe.

[megladon8]

I hate living in Canada and only having Crave.

[Irish]

When is a pastiche just pastiche and when is it just another stupid horror movie?

Posted elsewhere, but:


Of course it's intentional.

The opening flashback is a great set-up and should have prepped the audience for what was coming. But instead, Wan reverts to a rote horror-thriller for the next hour. It's totally uninteresting on just about every level. There's nothing fresh, just Wan opening his usual filmic bag of tricks and injecting a small amount of purely visual interest into scenes every 20 minutes or so.

If you're gonna go throwback, then comment on it. Have something to say. Put a 21st century spin on it. Don't just ape shit to ape it.

I kept wishing that Raimi had directed bc if nothing else, Raimi knows where the fun is. He would have started with the monster and stayed with the monster, and just kept topping scene after scene. (See also: Darkman.)

The film bucks 2 hours. If it had been 80 minutes (like a lot of the movies it's riffing), then okay, maybe that would have been something. But as it stands, there's this HUGE deadspace right in the middle I can't get over.

Big disappointment for me bc after the first 5 minutes I was all in for something 100% gonzo. Not 60 minutes of pure boredom followed by a crazy ending. I've seen plenty of lame 80s horror movies. I didn't need another one produced in 2021.

[Spun Lepton]

I've seen plenty of lame 80s horror movies.

How dare you, sir. (*glove slap*)

That said, yeah this is basically Basket Case with millions of dollars behind it. I'm just shocked Wan was able to convince WB to go through with it.

[Dukefrukem]

I'm just shocked Wan was able to convince WB to go through with it.

Aquaman made $1.1 billion. WB basically said, do whatever you want, just get us a horror movie released on this date.

[transmogrifier]

Parasitic little bro must have been boning up on the last 10 years of mainstream Hollywood fight scenes all trapped away in there, because it's remarkable how well he mimics generic superhero non-physics. Something more primal, clumsy and brutal would have worked; as it stands, it's just a Hollywood hackjob dressed up some gore. Twist is pretty obvious pretty early

Mostly terrible acting across the board as well.

[Irish]

Somebody remind me .... (X-Files and Malignant):

Wasn't there some episode of the X-Files that had a similar premise? Conjoined twins, one of them detaches from the other and commits murder in the middle of the night, beat cops can't figure it out, etc etc.

[Dukefrukem]

Yes. It was the freak episode in Season 2 "Humbug"

[Irish]

ahhhh very cool

i think i will dig that one up and re-watch it

[Peng]

This seemingly distills James Wan's overall career path -- initial grungy gory phase, classical horror filmmaking, dip into blockbuster's maximalism -- into one single package, then adds a dash of giallo before heightens the whole thing into delirious stratosphere. The last aspect of giallo is why this just misses being truly great in its own way to me. The too-long running time, especially in the set-up act, just highlights the (maybe intentional?) choppiness in writing and acting of that genre too much, so instead of blending into part of the charm, it comes off just too modern-horror inept at times. But once the film hits that reveal (whoo boy), it truly takes off as an escalating gonzo trip and never look back. And throughout even the rough patch, Wan's style in both old-school horror and bloody kineticism remain on point. 7/10

[Dukefrukem]

It definitely focuses less on scaring. I mean.. I was laughing out loud towards teh end and enjoying every second of it.

[Skitch]

I'm about 30 min in to this and I fucking hate it.

Not because its bad or anything, because its scaring the fucking shit outta me. I hate the ghosty shadowy shit, then my jet black labradoodle moves through the room and I almost shit myself.

[Skitch]

Picking back up...


OH WHAT THE FUCK!!!!

[Skitch]

Thumbs up.

I'm glad it wasn't more ghosty shit. I am mostly over that stuff. Once its revealed whats up I was much more relaxed and could enjoy the insanity.

[Mal]

There's nothing special about this. It gets wacky but never as truly weird as it could be like any damn movie from the 80s would be. The set up is pretty mediocre (oh so her husband is abusive... and thats it), so I never cared about the characters nor the developments. Meh.

[Morris Schæffer]

What the goddamn fuck?!

- I was annoyed how pretty much every scene has some kind of weirdness going on, usually involving electrical interference, but once the cat was out of the bag it made sense.
- Pretty funny how James Wan was probably considered for Conjuring 3: The Devil Made me do it, and then made Malignant: The 'Devil' Made me do to. Malignant is superior, not by much.
- It's a cool and crazy twist which, if I had to choose, probably elevated a decent movie rather than solidified an already good one.
- Cliches abound of course, the good old important cop suffers a flesh wound while while every other bit player cop gets torn to shreds in a police station massacre that would make the T-800 cry for its momma
- Teratoma's are a real thing, the pictures online are as tragic as they are disturbing
- I never in a million years could believe that the sister would drive all alone to the abandoned and super demented lunatic asylum searching for clues, which she of course finds in a heartbeat. Funny too how the building looms ahead and there's bright sunlight but when sister arrives moments later it's already dark and gloomy.
- Go easy on the thunder and lightning next time Jim
- By the last 20 minutes you're either on board or you're out. I guess I was still kinda in.

[Peng]

I never cared about the characters

excuse me, nothing but respect for MY Olympics-level chair-throwing monster

https://64.media.tumblr.com/1214855ad59e628b7dffc5a294c06b db/a68005936123a4cd-92/s540x810/44d0007b247b6570d452db7484519b aa26a10923.gif

[Dukefrukem]

- I never in a million years could believe that the sister would drive all alone to the abandoned and super demented lunatic asylum searching for clues, which she of course finds in a heartbeat. Funny too how the building looms ahead and there's bright sunlight but when sister arrives moments later it's already dark and gloomy.


Dude. I'm the king of nitpicks, but this takes it to another level. First, this is almost exactly what happened in the Ring, which is universally praised. And second, you're questioning THIS when the main premise is a conjoined twin that takes over the brain of a woman to commits dozens of acts of murder and speaks through electrical interference ?

[Skitch]

Not gonna lie, I did notice the drive up to the building was day and when she got there it was night. And to uber-nit pick...she parked about 6 inches from the edge of a cliff :D

[Morris Schæffer]

Dude. I'm the king of nitpicks, but this takes it to another level. First, this is almost exactly what happened in the Ring, which is universally praised. And second, you're questioning THIS when the main premise is a conjoined twin that takes over the brain of a woman to commits dozens of acts of murder and speaks through electrical interference ?

First, I think The Ring is just OK and second I still got a point so I'm allowed to bring it up right.

It's unclear to me why a kinda out there premise would be a carte blanche for other aspects of the movie to be kinda implausible.

[Dukefrukem]

Not gonna lie, I did notice the drive up to the building was day and when she got there it was night. And to uber-nit pick...she parked about 6 inches from the edge of a cliff :D

Yeh there' may have been some editing to post that skips a fake out scare at that point. I noticed that too.

[Dukefrukem]

First, I think The Ring is just OK and second I still got a point so I'm allowed to bring it up right.

It's unclear to me why a kinda out there premise would be a carte blanche for other aspects of the movie to be kinda implausible.

I'm just saying this is the kind of complaint akin to hating Star Wars Episode 2 because there's no sound in space; so spaceships shouldn't make noise when they pass by the camera.

[Morris Schæffer]

I'm just saying this is the kind of complaint akin to hating Star Wars Episode 2 because there's no sound in space; so spaceships shouldn't make noise when they pass by the camera.

It's not, her visiting the insane asylum by her own and finding the necessary files real fast even though she's never been there directly impacts the plot itself therefore to me it's a bit more of an issue than the SW example you brought up. I really don't think it's in the same ballpark.

[Dukefrukem]

It's not, her visiting the insane asylum by her own and finding the necessary files real fast even though she's never been there directly impacts the plot itself therefore to me it's a bit more of an issue than the SW example you brought up. I really don't think it's in the same ballpark.

I know you don't think it is' the same ballpark, but it is.

[Scar]

It’s like someone complaining about how the Anderson Wheeler 500 Nitro Express double rifle (IE Elephant gun) had zero recoil in Skyfall.






My only complaint, other than a slight cry when he just throws away a 25k rifle.

[Skitch]

It’s like someone complaining about how the Anderson Wheeler 500 Nitro Express double rifle (IE Elephant gun) had zero recoil in Skyfall.

My only complaint, other than a slight cry when he just throws away a 25k rifle.

I know we're derailing here, but Hollywood really needs to get the memo about the reality of pistol suppressors. Every. Time. It irritates me.

[Scar]

I know we're derailing here, but Hollywood really needs to get the memo about the reality of pistol suppressors. Every. Time. It irritates me.

Unless they’re using 45 ACP, then they’d be rather quiet since it’s a subsonic round. With that said, the pistol shots at the end of the Bourne Identity were pretty close.

[Morris Schæffer]

I know you don't think it is' the same ballpark, but it is.

I wasn't convinced by the movie's plotting in that instance for reasons already explained. I don't think anyone's ever complained about sloppy plotting when talking about scenes in space not being devoid of sound. It'd be mighty boring if all we ever got was total silence.

[Dukefrukem]

I wasn't convinced by the movie's plotting in that instance for reasons already explained. I don't think anyone's ever complained about sloppy plotting when talking about scenes in space not being devoid of sound. It'd be mighty boring if all we ever got was total silence.

Seemed to work OK for 2001.

[DFA1979]

That was insane. I'm not sure if it was good, great or just so bad it was good, but it will definitely stick in my brain for the next couple of days. Glad I saw this on the big screen.

[Ezee E]

I'm not one to praise a movie for being "so bad it's good" but in this case... it's so skillfully made in the last 30-40 minutes, that I cannot ignore that there's an enjoyment out of this.

It's just that it takes well over an hour to get there, and features some of the worst acting I've seen this year.

But it's funny that someone mentioned that park to the cliff's edge... because that's literally when the movie starts to get good.

[megladon8]

Yeah we kind of loved this.

Not without its faults (nu metal musical score was awful), but it is so original, insane, and committed to its craziness.

Feels like a love letter to Argento and Fulci.

[Grouchy]

I just crack up thinking Wan was at home watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on TV and he just went "hey, we can do this, but body horror" - with some giallo and ghost movie thrown into the mix. I personally thought it was cool as fuck, I don't mind a throwback to the '80s Horror movies with proper character development and out there concepts. And Wan has grown exponentially as a filmmaker. I look forward to anything new he does.