It's been nearly two weeks and I'm no less fixated on Malignant than the first night I watched it. My girlfriend hates it, my closest friend hates it, both of my roommates and two other friends and co-workers all hate it. I have a couple of other friends who liked it but it's mostly a single-serving novelty movie to them. I'm a culture of one in the Malignant Fandom.
The last time I was in the grip of a movie like this, standing at the forefront of a growing cult, was Tusk in 2014. But unlike Tusk, which I loved immediately and never questioned why, I'm no closer to understanding why I'm borderline obsessed with Malignant. I mean, I can point to specific things I love about it--and its overall vibe--but why I'm consumed by it is purely abstract. This is an insistent, confident, unruly movie and so are
my feelings for it.
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| So polarizing that it's fucking symmetrical. Lol, Movie Magic |
Tongue-bathing fans and tongue-lashing opponents have debated Malignant's artistic intent and merit for a couple of weeks so, obviously, I want some of my spit in the convo: It's definably Giallo even though gatekeeping Horror elitists dismiss that claim. Every
criticism of it; the hokey acting, the gaudy music cues, the
unnaturally colorful lighting, the maudlin melodrama, and the ridiculous
story is all prevalent in Giallo classics (along
with the black gloves, the voyeuristic and gory murders, the unique
blade, the detective/mystery element, and the female lead struggling
with her psyche). I'm confident that, had this been made by an Italian filmmaker in the '70s or '80s, its Scream Factory blu-ray would be out of stock and those same horror hall-monitors would bitch about how 'underrated' it is. But because it's new and different: it's maligned for not blatantly paying its respects. Malignant
is a patchwork-pastiche that doesn't explicitly telegraph its
inspirations for Easter Egg-hunting YouTubers to Fansplain to us - it's
very modern and juuuust self-aware enough without rocketing to Sharknado altitudes
of flamboyance; it's camp, not a cheese festival. It even opens with
the brand new Warner Brothers logo filtered through a VHS effect; Wan
establishing from the jump that this is a throwback to Video Store
oddities.
It's more than just lurid Italian horror, it's also dreary and gothic, with shades of 2000s-era Dark Castle Pictures camp, body horror (more Henenlotter than Cronenberg), Japanese Horror, and even some John Woo action - an alchemical mixture that synthesizes into solid gold for some and solid turds for others. Wan
said that when he made SAW, he was boxed
in as a "torture porn" purveyor and, when he made Insidious and The
Conjuring, he was labelled "the haunted house director." Malignant is
him violently slashing his way out of every box, severing every label, and risking his reputation in the process. This was marketed on expectations for what a JAMES WAN movie is. The
trailer is a weak, unimpressive promotional that I'm kinda thankful
for; it kept my expectations low and effectively hid just how nasty, absurd, and aware this movie truly is. But loyal Wan fans fucking hated this movie for not being familiar - some even, understandably, accused of being a cynical "prank." I don't think it's a prank in any sense; Wan didn't betray his audience's trust, he just asked them to reconsider what it means to be his fan. I wasn't a fan until this movie because I didn't think he had it in him to be this playful. There's plenty of garden-variety comic relief in Insidious and Conjuring, sure, but nothing like the almost nonstop whackadoo here - a huge part of Malignant's charm is how fearlessly corny it is. It finds itself funny but not with any ironic scorn, it seriously asks you to laugh with it. Another release from this year, M. Night's OLD, has the same kind of earnest fearlessness. As Richard Brody put it "Just
as it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken, it takes a smart
filmmaker to make a stupid movie, which I mean in the best possible way." It's a horror movie that dares to defy the Arthouse trends of 'elevated Horror' put out by A24 and its imitators.
I didn't see Antlers but this piece of a review exemplifies why I appreciate the schlocky unimportant fun of Malignant. It's not frightening, no, but it is a goddamn delight:
It's nice to have a horror movie that's this funny and devoid of any weighty allegorical meaning(s). Like, I love Midsommar, The Lighthouse, and Get Out for a lot of reasons but I come back to them, more than other Prestige Horror from the 2010s, because they're willing to be funny (even Hereditary has glints of humor that it doesn't get enough credit for [since it's mostly eclipsed by its howling misery]). But the most recent releases, in the past year, have all been so. fucking. DOUR. Look at The Dark And The Wicked, Relic, Censor, A Quiet Place Part II, and the especially joyless Saint Maud (and it's not like they make up for it with any real terror, either, so...). With all that said, I don't mean to undersell it: this thing is fucking violent and our harbinger of doom is capital-V Villainous.
Despite his glaring similarities to Belial from Basket Case, Gabriel is a great new horror figure. Even his weapon--a trophy awarded to one of the Doctors on his Physician-slaying Circuit--is iconic.
Made from gold, razor-sharp, adorned with wings and the word EXCELLENCE, Gabriel's makeshift blade--complete with fashioned grips--is as idiosyncratic and memorable as Freddy Krueger's glove. Knees back, elbows forward, with our lead's face on the 'back' of his head, Gabriel is a significant screen presence. His reveal comes when he 'hatches' out of our heroine's skull, bearing brain and tissue. He hijacks her body, backwards, slaughtering everyone in his path with superhuman strength. Then there's his ability to control electricity, where he murders a security guard by blowing up his pacemaker - a memorably nasty kill. Played by contortionist Marina Mazepa walking backwards (wearing a mask of Annabelle Wallis' face) and the aurally-gifted voice actor Ray Chase giving the best performance in the movie, Gabriel is unforgettable.
Malignant failed at the box office, to absolutely no surprise, and I'm conflicted because, on one side of the skull, I'm bummed since I wanted Wan's weird ambitions to pay off (not literally, he's swimming in Aquaman billions. This was money spent, not an investment). But on the other side I'm glad it wasn't a hit because that means the death of possible franchising. It should remain singular and since it's been popular on HBO Max and the most-searched movie on Rotten Tomatoes, people will be talking about it, arguing about it, and perplexed by it for years. I'll never forget it as a full-hearted horror comedy that went against the grain of every horror trend in 2021. It's not A24, it's not Blumhouse, it's not a remake or a sequel, and it's not even James Wan:
It's Malignant.
I didn't see Antlers but this piece of a review exemplifies why I appreciate the schlocky unimportant fun of Malignant. It's not frightening, no, but it is a goddamn delight:
It's nice to have a horror movie that's this funny and devoid of any weighty allegorical meaning(s). Like, I love Midsommar, The Lighthouse, and Get Out for a lot of reasons but I come back to them, more than other Prestige Horror from the 2010s, because they're willing to be funny (even Hereditary has glints of humor that it doesn't get enough credit for [since it's mostly eclipsed by its howling misery]). But the most recent releases, in the past year, have all been so. fucking. DOUR. Look at The Dark And The Wicked, Relic, Censor, A Quiet Place Part II, and the especially joyless Saint Maud (and it's not like they make up for it with any real terror, either, so...). With all that said, I don't mean to undersell it: this thing is fucking violent and our harbinger of doom is capital-V Villainous.
Made from gold, razor-sharp, adorned with wings and the word EXCELLENCE, Gabriel's makeshift blade--complete with fashioned grips--is as idiosyncratic and memorable as Freddy Krueger's glove. Knees back, elbows forward, with our lead's face on the 'back' of his head, Gabriel is a significant screen presence. His reveal comes when he 'hatches' out of our heroine's skull, bearing brain and tissue. He hijacks her body, backwards, slaughtering everyone in his path with superhuman strength. Then there's his ability to control electricity, where he murders a security guard by blowing up his pacemaker - a memorably nasty kill. Played by contortionist Marina Mazepa walking backwards (wearing a mask of Annabelle Wallis' face) and the aurally-gifted voice actor Ray Chase giving the best performance in the movie, Gabriel is unforgettable.
Malignant failed at the box office, to absolutely no surprise, and I'm conflicted because, on one side of the skull, I'm bummed since I wanted Wan's weird ambitions to pay off (not literally, he's swimming in Aquaman billions. This was money spent, not an investment). But on the other side I'm glad it wasn't a hit because that means the death of possible franchising. It should remain singular and since it's been popular on HBO Max and the most-searched movie on Rotten Tomatoes, people will be talking about it, arguing about it, and perplexed by it for years. I'll never forget it as a full-hearted horror comedy that went against the grain of every horror trend in 2021. It's not A24, it's not Blumhouse, it's not a remake or a sequel, and it's not even James Wan:
It's Malignant.
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