malignant is overexcited about itself to the point that it overcooks the dozen-or-so ideas it's trying to play with. it is heads above similar contemporary horror films about 'trauma' by virtue of the fact that james wan has an infectious amount of fun with the third act, but until that happens you're stuck with two acts of tepid half-comedy that isn't so much bad as it is boring. i really want to go to bat for this film because i wish most modern horror had as much manic energy as this exudes, but the truth is that i figured out the whole plot almost immediately and then spent most of the runtime wishing that i was watching a version of this that was 80 minutes lean.