Malignant

The category is: Gonzo horror movies that entertain out of sheer weirdness. Ladies and gentlemen, Malignant has just entered the room. Uber-successful director James Wan first found fame with horror: Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring have earned billions worldwide. Over the past six years, he achieved even greater success with Furious 7 and Aquaman. Wan’s latest marks a return to the genre that made him famous. It’s too silly to take seriously and yet too bizarre to simply dismiss.

This movie has everything: psychic abilities, doctors, detectives, repressed childhood memories, imaginary friends, lesbians in jail, and evil siblings. I suddenly feel like Stefon — Bill Hader’s club-kid character on SNL — enumerating all the avant-garde features of the hippest New York clubs. Despite my long list, I haven’t given any substantive details of what happens in this crazy movie. There is so much more than meets the eye.

Madison Lake (Annabelle Wallis) is expecting a child. One night after a fight with Derek (Jake Abel), her abusive husband, she locks herself in the bedroom away from him and falls asleep. At night, she dreams that a stranger enters their home and violently kills him. Sure enough, she discovers Derek’s dead body downstairs when she awakes. Then realizes the killer is still there before blacking out. She regains consciousness in the hospital and learns she was attacked. Soon thereafter she continues to experience terrifying visions of horrific murders. What’s even more troubling is that the murders she’s witnesses are indeed happening. Her visions simultaneously occur in real-time.

There’s a heightened sensibility to the atmosphere right from the start. The exaggerated acting style telegraphs we’re in for some humor. Star Annabelle Wallis plays it pretty straight, but the rest of the cast didn’t get the same memo. The opening scene ends with a doctor boldly making a solemn declaration to the camera, “It’s time we cut out the cancer!” Buckle up for a fun ride. The explanation for Madison’s hallucinations will be fully explained. Trust that’s it’s an insane and unpredictable reveal. The manifestation of that development is a genuinely freakish display. The third act will either have you rolling your eyes in disgust or laughing uncontrollably at how over the top it is. I’m firmly in the latter category. Longtime readers know I am not a fan of viscera. However, when tinged with humor, it becomes cartoonish and therefore easier to take. Here I embraced the gore.

James Wan is well acquainted with camp. His entire filmography is proof of that with Aquaman being a recent example. As Susan Sontag famously wrote in 1964, “Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” That perfectly describes Malignant in a nutshell. If you’re willing to embrace that sensibility, this will be an absolute hoot. This fantastic (and bloody) saga is reminiscent of the work of Italian director Dario Argento, best known for Suspiria in 1977. Granted the narrative will not hold up to intense scrutiny. This is a convoluted mess. Nonetheless, a ridiculously entertaining fright fest with an emphasis on the grotesque is still a mesmerizing spectacle. I enjoyed it for its audacious style.

09-10-21