Malignant: A Welcome Trip back into “What in the Hell?”

Movies in the recent era at least the last 10 years if not more have been dry. Many have been souless, repetitive, lacking in any sort of sexual energy, and a damn sure lack for audacity. So my philosophy when I see something that swings for the fences while doing a Casey double twist at bat is even if it strikes out, even if it's a single, or a double or a triple, I like to give it sincere props for trying to knock the hide off that very recognizable ball ans place that SOB right outside of the park… Such a movie is James ’s latest “Malignant”. I don’t know if it will land with most folks but they will definitely feel the wind from the swing. This is a movie I believe it's best to go and blind so I will not be giving away not one single detail about the film save to speak on it in broad strokes. It is silly, it is..it’s preposterous, At times I don't know that it necessarily made sense and yet it did, The acting is only serviceable, and as I've said amongst friends many times I'm not a fan of that particular colorization that is taking ahold of horror films lately where they're painted in grays and greens and grains and colors so dark that even in the daytime it seems to still be dark. I think it's important that audiences know that terrifying things and horrifying things can still take place even in the daytime in fact I find it scarier when they do. “Rosemary's Baby” “The Shining”, “The Omen”, “Jaws”, “Hellraiser”, “Phantasm”, Many of our favorite horror films had the scares and the settings for fear take place in the day, and daylight looked like daylight.

What Malignant may lack in details like “Why is it midnight in the afternoon” and “Why are the police such freaking idiots” it makes up for in sheer out of its mind insane audacity. Something I feel we have lost in horror for quite some time. Sure on the smaller indie circuit we have gotten some bizarre films like The Void” or “Baskin” or “Color Out of Space” but those are more trippy than ridiculous and loony, and they're not mainstream. This is more in the realm of Cronenberg in his heyday with stuff like “Scanners” and “The Brood” and add in a little bit of Argento, and a pinch of some of those grindhouse films from the 70s, but sold to the same audiences as “Poltergeist”. Its moody, it has presence, and it starts off feeling like most of what you’ve seen out there and THEN…it devolves into something much more delicious and absurd. It’s setup leads you to the water but not to drink just yet, that’s saved for the reveal, which in and of itself is creepy enough on its own invoking terrors seen in sikw very well known sci-fi films, but it refuses to settle there goes still even further with an all out martial arts extravaganza that has to be seen to be believed. There's a Stephen King short story that was transformed to a mid budgeted semi cult movie that Malignant reminded me of heavily, nevermind a few other films that are in it’s sub-genre, but I won't say because I feel as though it would give the entire thing away. I definitely don't know whether it will be for everyone, but I think if you know going in what to expect in regards to how off best it turns you may be able to enjoy it a little bit more and I also feel as though its presence was sorely needed on the field right now. Movies in general are having trouble with variety the risk-averse nature of the industry is keeping them from having output that isn't almost a direct mimic or a copy of what has already been successful, so it's fun when you see somebody who has been as successful as James Wan constantly mess with the formula a little bit and move out of the range of what you might expect him to do because I personally did not see this coming at all and I am in a lot of ways happy for it. Malignant was a fun trip because while I did have in mind the destination the path getting there was as much of an adventure as one could ask for with a final act that is as WTF as anything Ive seen in awhile and again not the Richard Stanley “I’m confused” WTF, but the Cronenberg Videeodrome TV set kind of WTF, and you know what? we're not getting much of that in the movies these days so to that I say thank you Mr. Wan . Enjoy your bowl of batsh** insane folks.