Malignant

Malignant is what happens when a talented director like James Wan (The Conjuring franchise) just says "screw it", and decides to make the most bat-crap bonkers horror movie that he can imagine.  The end result is not exactly scary, but it's certainly never boring.  This is a movie that pays tribute to 80s slasher films, body horror, cheesy detective thrillers, even cheesier paranormal thrillers, and a touch of Stephen King in a way that almost has to be seen to be believed.

If that sounds like kind of a mess, that's because it is.  But like I said, it's certainly never boring.  Wan has usually tried to emphasize atmosphere and suspense with his past films, but he goes for broke here, and gives us a movie that would be funny if it didn't take itself so damn seriously.  That won't stop the audience from laughing, though.  You can't build a movie around a plot and a final revelation like this, and not expect the people watching it to laugh out of disbelief of what they're looking at.  My only guess as to how a movie like this even got the go-ahead from a major studio like Warner Bros. is due to Wan's past success.  He got a blank check, and swung for the fences here.  I kind of admire the film for that.  But I don't know if I can label this a good movie.

The plot is centered on Madison "Maddie" Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis), a Seattle-based woman who is pregnant as the film opens, and lives with her cartoonishly drunken lout of a husband, Derek (Jake Abel).  Through forced exposition, we quickly learn that she has experienced multiple miscarriages over the past couple years, and that Derek likes to smack her around.  Not to worry, though, as Derek's not in the picture for very long.  A shadowy figure appears in their living room that night, watching television, and gives the abusive hubby an early exit from the film.  Maddie suffers from yet another miscarriage from the trauma of the event, and is comforted by her sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson), while a pair of police detectives (George Young and Michole Briana White) are suspicious about her husband's murder when they learn about his violent history with her, and that there was no forced entry in the house the night it happened.

The film's body count quickly rises as more murders happen, all of them committed by that same dark ghost-like presence that has a disfigured face that is hidden behind a mess of black, oily hair.  The murders seem to be connected to doctors who once worked at the Simion Research Hospital, a shadowy building that once existed on a wind-swept cliff above raging waters, and looks less like a place you would go for medical care, and more like the kind of place Dr. Frankenstein would have if he could afford it.  Maddie seems to have a connection as well, as she begins to witness all of these murders play out in her head.  It's like she's standing there whenever the murders occur, so she can inform the police who the victims are, and where the crimes occurred before they are even called in.

What does it all mean?  I don't think the filmmakers even know, as the screenplay frantically digs up Maddie's past, drops one surprise revelation after another onto our laps, and finally just gives up on even trying to make sense of it all, and gives us a blood-soaked final 15 minutes that is hands-down the most insane conclusion to a mainstream horror movie I have seen in a long time.  Malignant is not trying to be artful in any way.  The characters are stock and barely developed, the music score pounds at your skull as it tries to overplay the suspense, the dialogue and the acting is hammy and obvious, and the villain at the center of it all is a ghostly figure that can manipulate electricity and all household appliances, and apparently can only speak through radio signals.  And no, the movie doesn't come close to explaining why exactly.

As long as you know what you're getting into here, and the kind of movie Wan is making, I think some fun can be had.  You're not supposed to take a moment of this seriously, which is why it's surprising that the movie doesn't have much of a sense of humor to itself.  Maybe the fact that the actors are taking this so seriously is supposed to be the joke.  After all, the secret to successful comedy is acting like what you're saying is not funny.  Regardless, the movie is quite gruesome throughout, though nothing quite prepared me for the climax.  It's the kind of "let's throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" conclusion that we seldom see in major Hollywood releases these days.

I kind of want to recommend Malignant, but my better judgement as a critic prevents me, because it's not a very good movie.  Still, I say that with a wink and a smile.  Some would label this a guilty pleasure, but that's taking the easy way out.  I say it's crap, I know it's crap, and I kind of strangely admired it for what it was. 

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