31 Days of Halloween: Malignant

2021, James Wan (Insidious) -- download

Kent saw and wrote about it in 2022; he liked it, so ... we agree? And I added it to the list for the coming October, but only just watched now. No idea why. We have a lot of previously downloaded movies meant for this season, which are not watched. I could probably do all of next year from just that bin. 

Prior to this movie, Wan was known for Saw, which we never saw (pun not intended) or, if we did, so outright dismissed the Torture Porn gem that we soured on the whole franchise, but we did see Insidious and wrote about it in the inaugural 31 Days event. He was acclaimed enough that they gave him Aquaman which I hated (more retrospectively, as I am OK about it in the writeup), but Kent loved. And with the money from it, he did what can only be described as a Horror passion project, because... <keanu whoah> is it bonkers.

So bonkers, that upon starting it and the so unbelievably over-the-top, melodramatic, so utterly campy acting and preamble setup, I was wondering if this was going to be a movie within a movie, something where they ascribe a throwback Z-grade horror movie vibe to some elements, but normalize it elsewhere. Kind of? It never does the layered approach, but if it wasn't for the absolute bonkers budget he puts into the movie, this could have been Z-grade all the way.

So bonkers that I had to start Googling it. And it got, like a lot of, talk. 

Well, that's annoying. The next three draft paragraphs were eaten by a bad save.

Most of the chatter is mixed with allusions to "American Giallo", or comments on this being Wan getting to do exactly what he wanted to do in a movie, given the money and open control he attained from Aquaman. Kent's the more attuned to giallo, but from what I understand, I can see the comparisons, in that its usually involving an investigative element, and buckets of blood. This movie would be lacking the 60s-70s sexual component common in the Italian movies. But given that even Wan called this his ode to Eyes of Laura Mars and that is considered a landmark in the American version of the genre, I can see what people are saying.

So, after the preamble, we are years later. A pregnant and very tired & sore Maddie (Annabelle Wallis, Annabelle) is returning from late night work, while her husband Derek (Jake Abel, Another Life) watches the game and flicks thru his phone. He's a jerk, angry at her for getting pregnant again, after four miscarriages. He's more than a jerk, he's angry and abusive, poking her belly and when she responds slamming her into a wall, cracking both the plaster and her head. Like all sniveling abusers, he runs away to get her something and she locks him out. Later, he's sleeping on the sofa when a long hair shadow attacks and ... CRICK... kills him.

Enter the cops, one Detective Kekoa (George Young, Containment) Shaw and Regina Moss (Michole Brianna White, Songbird), who is totally not played by Wanda Sykes. There was no break-in, Maddie did not see who it was, Moss immediately says, "Its always the wife." Maddie wakes up in the hospital with her sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson, Elevation) -- she's lost the baby. Weeks later, a barely functional Maddie returns home to the house where Derek died, because she has no where else to go.

Maddie's head won't stop bleeding, and then she is having visions of murders. The long haired shadow, in a floppy leather coat, is killing people she doesn't know. Maddie believes the killer to be her "imaginary friend" she calls Gabriel, and as she explains it to Sydney, when she reveals to her sister that she (Maddie) was adopted, Gabriel has always been trouble -- he tried to use Maddie as a child to murder Sydney in the womb. The cops uncover that Maddie was once Emily and the murders happening are doctors who worked on her before she was adopted, something to do with reconstructive surgery.

It was at this point that Marmy stated, from the table where she was half-watching, mostly painting Halloween figures, what was going on. Viewers have commented on how bonkers this "reveal", which doesn't come until much later in the movie, when the violence escalates to extreme levels, but... <shoulder shrug> ... this is where I was expecting it to go. So, I was right in the idea that this played like a Z-grade over-the-top horror movie, but with budget, and I am not ashamed to say, skill. Wan takes a whacka-doodle premise and really plays it for heart. Even if he didn't succeed in convincing most audiences, he got the make the movie he wanted.

Once I settled into the "this is intentional", I really enjoyed the cheesey aspects of the movie. The sex appeal with which Detective Shaw is played, and their almost SNL Skit level interactions. The fact that Wan's wife plays Crime Scene tech Winnie (Ingrid Bisu, The Nun) who is crushing on Shaw. The violence is ultra, and I also amused myself by comparing the mass murder of cops in a station house scene from The Cycle with this movie's scene. I have a feeling the director of the former was a big fan of this one.

We agreed. And I have to say, I am amused that Kent is seeing more of the lauded examples of the horror genre that we started this blog saying was a "Toasty thing", than I am these days.