Review of Malignant (2021) by Thisguy1 — 13 Sep 2021

There is enjoyment to be had in watching this film. It is campy. It is not as scary as some of Wan's previous work. However, there is an element of horror to it that is somewhat unsettling. I loved the twist.

It definitely subverted expectations. And, although there are aspects that I don't understand, the twist makes sense when looking back at the rest of the movie. I wish the third act would have been a little more Alien and a little less Aliens, but it worked in a B-movie kind of way.

I think most "fans" of James Wan who gave this low scores need to re-watch his previous horror films. All of them have varying degrees of "camp/cheese" to them. Malignant wasn't too far off what Wan regularly delivers.

I sincerely hope Wan continues to do horror films, now that he's "in demand." He's has shown flashes of David Fincher (Saw vs Se7en), Wes Craven (Dead Silence vs A Nightmare on Elm Street), and a mix of William Friedkin and Steven Spielberg (both Insidious and Conjuring films vs The Exorcist and Poltergeist).

Malignant has aspects of David Cronenberg and John Carpenter. The more I think about this film, the more I like it.