Malignant

Malignant ★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This review may contain spoilers.

A pregnant woman is stalked by a mysterious killer with long black hair - and they may have some kind of connection. Read the title and take it very literally. Yep! You figured it out.

The trailers try to sell this as a supernatural horror film, which didn't excite me very much (THE CONJURING universe is not for me!), but thankfully it isn't, because...

***SPOILER***

... James Wan re-made BASKET CASE as a Giallo.

***NO MORE SPOILERS*

I was confused why they hid the reveal of the killer for so long. It's clear who's doing the stabbing, which leads to a "Come on, let's get on with it" frustration, but I laughed at the sheer audaciousness of its execution.

Following that, Wan goes "How much money do we have left? Okay. Why don't we spend it re-creating a set-piece from THE TERMINATOR, but you know, like a hyper-violent martial arts film?"

Besides that one go-for-broke sequence, Wan deploys his typical suspense set-piece structure, with a gleefulness I'm glad to see him still embrace. And yet, I still wish it were a little crazier consistently throughout? I know, nothing will please me!

Block or Report