Malignant

This film has been my most anticipated horror film of this whole year. James Wan is my favourite director of all time, I love all of his films and I wanted to make sure I went into this film blind. I avoided all the trailers, only saw the poster and cast and that was it and I knew with all this hype, this film would be either my biggest disappointment or my biggest surprise and wow, surprised is just scraping the barrel of how I felt about this film.

Let's just get the negatives out the way now. For me, this films story lacked focus on what it really was because when it starts, it's like a haunted house film then it starts to feel like a slasher then it goes in a totally different direction so it felt like James Wan couldn't decide what specific horror trope he wanted to focus on.

And whilst this is a horror film, the scares a very limited and James Wan is always good when it comes to scares and tension so that was slightly disappointing that there wasn't more of that.

Finally and this is a nitpick, it began to bother me how often Annabelle Wallis would scream at something. There's a section in the film where something happens, everyone is in shock and Annabelle Wallis just starts screaming and it did get on my nerves a bit.

As for mixed feelings, this film has one of the darkest opening acts in any film I've seen and there will be people who will struggle with the opening act so without spoiler it, be sure to prepare yourself if you see it.

I've also seen people say this is a very campy film and I don't know if it's just me but I never felt that way at all. Dark, yes. Intense yes. Campy? Not at all but that's just me.

Now from here on out, it's all positives and I'll start small and work on to the best of the film. So first of all, the cast is fantastic in this film. I've seen Annabelle Wallis in plenty of projects so it's nice to see her in another horror film and she doesn't disappoint. The rest of the cast I'm unfamiliar with but they are all great.

Like a lot of James Wans films, the use of camerawork is remarkably impressive. How the camera moves, the wide angle shots, the dark lighting and even a grainy colour filter, it's all used very efficiently and it makes this film really nice to look at.

Another James Wan trademark that gets felt amongst the film is atmosphere. Multiple set pieces are so atmospherically felt and even in crowded scenes, mixed with the dark tone, there's no feeling of safety or peacefulness. You always feel the danger of the situation.

But you also feel this film is building towards something but you're not sure what and that is this film biggest achievement. The payoff and shocking twist it has feels 100% earned and within that, we get the best part of the film. A completely bonkers, OTT but badass and awesome third act that doesn't hold back. Pure carnage is unleashed, it's gruesome, it's stomach churning and I loved every bloody minute of it.

And because of the third act and how the story unfolds, it baffles me how the hell anyone could have come up with this sort of twist and even fact checked it. This film also has the potential to age incredibly well because it is pure practical effects. There's moments where I have no idea how these scenes were even filmable with how impressive these effects are and whilst CGI may have been used, I say May because I could not see it anywhere but that just be me.

And finally and I'll keep this very brief, this is a film that has potential for a franchise and unlike previous times where I have said, I do not want a sequel made to precious films, I DO want a sequel to this film and would be interested to see this films premise explored further.

So overall I loved this film. It's so memorable and I'll be raving about it for the next few days. It may not be James Wans best film but it's definitely his most insane film to date and I can't wait to see his next project.

⭐⭐⭐⭐