Malignant (2021) - James Wan returns to horror, except this is really more of a superhero/villain origin story. It’s on HBO Max. First, you get an ominous prologue from ye olde days of 1993 that doesn’t make sense until later. Opening credits, then the movie starts. Annabelle Wallis plays Madison, a pregnant woman married to an abusive husband. After he slams her head into a wall he falls asleep on the downstairs couch while Madison nurses her injury and sleeps in the bed. (They live in a Seattle area mansion despite her being a night-shift care worker and him seemingly being unemployed.) A sinister person attacks them, killing the husband and knocking Madison out. After that, Madison is somehow linked psychically to the killer and dream-witnesses him murdering people. It seems like a pretty bog-standard damsel-linked-to-the-killer plot at first but there’s a lot more going on in the back half. Hoo boy! A lot more.
Without spoilers I can say that this is not a movie that could’ve been made without a major studio giving a director an effects budget based on his success with blockbusters. It’s still a modest project compared to Aquaman or Furious 7, but it’s obvious there’s more money in this than Insidious or The Conjuring. It’s a fine line between horror WTF and comedy WTF. I’m not sure if James Wan succeeds here.
The twist reveal of Gabriel is so bonkers, it’s hard to take seriously. And oy! The trophy having the equivalent of a hardened sword on it is soooooooooo stupid. The extended backwards movement fight scenes are awesome to watch though.
Why does Gabriel/Madison have superhuman strength? How does Gabriel/Madison speak through radio? Did Madison have no scars? She should, right? I don’t care how great of a surgeon you are, if you removed that from someone’s back, there would be some gnarly visible scars.
Is it good? That’s a harder question. I wasn’t mad at the time I spent watching it, but I really enjoyed the technical aspects of it.