Malignant
Photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture/Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures - © 2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved
Starring Annabelle Wallis (Annabelle, The Mummy), Maddie Hasson (Impulse, Twisted), and George Young (Home, Containment). Written by Ingrid Bisu, Akela Cooper. Written and Directed by James Wan (Saw, Furious 7).
SCREENPLAY: A-
I would give Casablanca’s screenplay an A+. A lot of folks would. The fact that Malignant’s screenplay’s grade is so close should not suggest the two screenplays are close in actual quality. They are not. Malignant’s screenplay would require the best teams working days on end to catch up to Casablanca’s achievement.
The reason Malignant’s screenplay gets such a great grade is simple. It does its job, which is to turn your brain into a sloppy lump resembling the messily devoured remains of a half eaten grilled cheese sandwich. A job it does flawlessly. To keep this riff on grilled cheese sandwiches going, you don’t typically find them in the ‘finest” restaurants. They’re considered lowbrow cuisine. But there are few culinary pleasures more delightful than having a hankering for one, finding one, and eating it. Grilled cheese sandwiches - like Malignant’s story - get the job done.
ACTING: B+
Not to talk about Casablanca too much (it’s a classic that should be seen), but the same thing happens here with the acting grade. This group of actors has a long way to go to reach the heights of a Humphrey Bogart or an Ingrid Bergman. But like the story, they do their job superbly.
And not to talk too much about grilled cheese sandwiches either, but George Young’s performance was the big key that unlocked these performances for me. He’s the detective every woman, other than his wonderfully cynical partner (Michole Briana White), swoons over. Young doesn’t play his role in a cheesy way. You never get the sense that Young, the actor, is throwing cheese at the camera. It's Detective Shaw who is cheesy.
The cheese is easy to spot since the role has a lot of comedy in it. It’s more difficult to see the cheese inside all the tormented folks we meet prior to meeting him. But once you see his cheese shine, you look back and see that everyone’s been performing with the same, glorious degree of cheese. It’s just a darker cheese. No Oscars for this ensemble, but they do their job brilliantly. If I had more spare time, I would craft and deliver to them glowing, delicious statues carved from the cheese of their choice.
CRAFT: A-
If using a camera is like speaking a language, then James Wan speaks horror movies fluently. Sometimes he keeps the camera far away, showing how small and vulnerable the victim is. Other times he places the character closer, off-center, creating an open space in the frame perfect for scary things to rush into. And in one of my favorite horror movie moves, he also zooms the camera around the room as if it’s the monster’s eyes stalking its victim.
There is a fantastic sequence where Maddie runs through the house from her front door to the upstairs bedroom. The camera is straight above her. The ceilings have been removed, and we follow her like a frightened mouse trapped in a maze. It’s a flex, and it works.
Also, fog is often scattered in places where fog has no reason to be. Bonus points.
THE TURN: A+
The “turn” of a film refers to the moment something happens that sets us up for the wild ride to the finish.
I cannot tell you what happens in the turn without ruining the movie. Just know that it is majestic and also the exact moment James Wan turns your brain into a sloppy lump resembling the messily devoured remains of a half eaten grilled cheese sandwich. Bravo, Mr. Wan.
FINAL COMMENTS:
In 1999, I went to see The Blair Witch Project with a friend. It terrified me. I had a bunch of family in town, so when I got home the only place left to sleep was the screened porch which backed up against thick forest. I slept less than an hour that night.
Many wellness experts claim many of the ailments people suffer from come from a lack of stress on our body. We’re too comfortable. If we never use our defense systems, they don’t work very well. Doing uncomfortable things like taking cold showers or turning off the AC have been shown to have possible health benefits.
Maybe that’s why we watch movies like The Blair Witch Project. Maybe we need to be scared to the point of needing to change our trousers once in a while. Maybe there was a health benefit to seeing your friends snapped up by hungry saber-tooth tigers. And maybe movies like The Blair Witch Project serve a function in a modern world where we’re not terrified on a regular basis.
Malignant is not that kind of movie. It dials down the overwhelming terror and replaces it with jump scares and, dare I say, more than a little bit of buffoonery. It may be cheesy but, like Detective Shaw, it owns its cheese and that makes it great. This movie is nothing but a good time and is definitely worth your time. Go, and enjoy.