Malignant (2021) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 6

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Careful that you don’t catch anything while visiting your Malig-Uncle and Malignant.

Malignant is the latest horror film from director James Wan, which takes on the theme of evil as a cancerous growth. It creates an interesting, if not possibly predictable, tale of trauma, illness, and surprisingly, family.

Before Viewing

The female lead in this trailer keeps having visions of people dying, which seem to come true. As she investigates what these strange psychic links to the victims, and to the killer mean, she discovers a video tape from when she was young that has her speaking to an invisible friend named Gabriel. It’s the same name that she hears the killer call himself. Just what is her connection to these deaths? And how is this Gabriel getting stronger? What does he want?

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

The film opens in 1993 at the Simion Research Hospital where Dr Weaver (Jacqueline McKenzie) is dealing with a large amount of death and destruction from someone named Gabriel. She orders the cancer to be cut out. Twenty-eight years later Maddie (Annabelle Wallis) returns home early from work, much to the disappointment of her husband Derek (Jake Abel). Her current pregnancy is causing her pain, but Derek doesn’t care and during an argument smashes the back of her head against the wall hard enough to start her bleeding. That night a mysterious form enters the house and kills Derek in a gruesome way.

Two weeks later, after losing the baby and being released from the hospital, her sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson) visits. It is revealed that Maddie was adopted at 8 years old. In the Seattle Underground, a tour guide (Jean Louisa Kelly) is captured and held hostage in an attic area by the killer. Electrical disturbances happen every time the killer is around; radios play his voice and lights flicker. Maddie has a vision of Dr Weaver being murdered. Detectives Shaw (George Young) and Moss (Michole Briana White) are brought in to investigate.

Shortly, Maddie has another premonition/vision of Dr Fields’ (Christian Clemenson) death, another researcher from Simion Hospital. She and Sydney inform the Detectives, who don’t believe her out right, but eventually go investigate. They find the body as described. Maddie receives a phone call from someone called Gabriel who appears to be the killer, and knows Maddie. Maddie and Sydney visit their mother who shows them a couple of videotapes of Maddie as a young girl interacting with an imaginary friend named…Gabriel.

A third vision, this time of Dr. Gregory, comes to Maddie, but Detective Shaw has already figured out the next victim from Dr. Weaver’s files. Shaw finds the dead doctor and chases the killer out the building and into the Underground before losing him. Shaw brings in a hypnotherapist to question Maddie. It is revealed that she had an episode before Sydney was born where she stood over her pregnant, adoptive mother with a knife. She admits to being urged to do this by her imaginary friend.

The kidnapped woman escapes from her bonds and falls through the floor, into Maddie’s living room right in front of the detectives. Maddie is taken into custody for the kidnapping of Serena May, who turns out to be Maddie’s birth mother. Since no one else seems to believe Maddie’s innocence, Sydney investigates Simion Hospital finding a series of shocking videotapes that reveal Gabriel is a powerful parasitic twin on Maddie’s back. The doctors removed as much of him as they could (“the cancer”) but had to leave his brain, which is linked to hers. Gabriel takes control of Maddie in the police station, killing a number of prisoners and cops, and injuring the two detectives.

Gabriel, now in control of Maddie’s body, heads to the hospital to kill Serena. He is shot by Shaw, and flips a hospital bed onto Sydney. He apparently shoots Sydney and strangles Serena, but that is only what Maddie lets him see. She has realized she has the same powers as he does, and locks him into a mind-prison. Maddie pulls Sydney from under the heavy bed, and proclaims that she will always be her sister, by blood or not.

“You know who I am. Even if they say I’m only in your head.” – Gabriel

I had heard good buzz about Malignant when it was released last year, which of course made me even more interested. Its director, James Wan, has been responsible for some of the creepiest and most interesting new horror films of the 21st Century including Saw (2004), Insidious (2010), and The Conjuring (2013). Unfortunately Malignant seems to be too clever for its own good. I was able to crack the mystery only about 45 minutes into the film. Not that this diminished the results of the film–there were still several creepy moments, most in the first hour. But it did point out that the film did a good job (maybe too good) with the various teases and foreshadowing elements. Let’s see how this works.

Wan went a little overboard in the foreshadowing elements of this film. The trailer does a good job of creating a mysterious idea that the protagonist (Maddie) and villain (Gabriel) are connected in some way. We meet Maddie, and her jerk of a husband in the middle of her third pregnancy within two years. He smashes her head up against the wall hard enough to dent the plaster and cause her head to bleed. She apparently does not seek any help for the head injury, though this would surely be a concussion, and is only admitted to the hospital after the attack on her and her husband. She loses the baby and continues to have a bloody spot left on her pillow from her head wound. It seems like the head wound has some connection to the miscarriages initially, ​​perhaps metaphorical spotting from her miscarriage. There are often shots of just the back of Maddie’s head, which seems to be a strange way to show the character. The audience is then told that 1) she’s adopted (which immediately gets the viewer thinking about the cold open at the hospital) and 2) she wants to have a baby because she yearns to have a “blood connection” with someone. Around the time of Dr. Fields’ attack, the killer is seen briefly with his long, stringy hair draped over his face, but also some weird backwards looking limbs. It was about this time that the above clues, plus the title of the film put two and two together.

The word malignant is defined as malevolent (evil towards others) but also used in medical terminology to mean virulent or infectious. People often speak of malignant cancer or malignant growths. Both these definitions reflect the character of Gabriel in this film. Perhaps the film works best for those not paying 100% attention, but it seems like there were too many clues as to where the film was going. Some of the best horror films offer immediate mysteries without any sense of payoff until the end of the film. Friday the 13th, for example, presents a mystery of “who is the killer,” leaving the audience guessing until the end of the film (in which it introduces a new character as the killer, proving all speculation was spurious). Sometimes the answer of “who” is evident, as in yesterday’s film Hush, where the film allows the tension that this person is on the attack for an unknown reason (which in this case is never resolved) to sustain the film. Malignant attempts to skirt the line between the two tropes, by featuring an overly clever twist that has too much backstory built into it. On further review of the film, the opening credits feature footage from the eventual videotapes watched by Sydney (which reveal the twist), and there seems to be lines of text that flash on the screen that tease the answers. Also, Annabelle Wallis is wearing a wig throughout the film that is evidently fake. It may be one of the worst hair pieces of recent memory, and also subconsciously leads to questions about her head.

But the film does play off a number of interesting homages in its story and cinematography. The Simion Research Hospital has a very Lovecraftian design and feel to it, especially when Sydney returns to find the evidence she needs. It goes from being a state-of-the-art hospital in 1993 to a creepy, derelict facility, complete with 1930s wooden wheelchairs only 28 years later. The plot borrows elements from both Irvin Kirshner’s 1978 thriller The Eyes of Laura Mars, in which the protagonist, a fashion photographer begins to see through the eyes of a killer, and Stephen King’s book (and film) The Dark Half, in which the lead character, a writer, has a tumorous growth that is his twin brother. The look of Gabriel’s character looks like a mix of the Creeper from Jeepers Creepers–with his leather duster coat, and long, stringy black hair like Sadako Yamamura in Ringu (or Samara Morgan in the American remake, The Ring–which also takes place in Seattle). But Gabriel also has a unique movement and physicality about him, with the backwards style of walking that he must use to navigate, which is unique to this film

Malignant does have its horror rooted in some real-world issues, such as cancer and other malignancies. Gabriel is specifically called a cancer by Dr. Weaver, probably not the nicest or most professional assessment of the situation. The horror stems from this invasive tumor that continues to live on in Maddie’s brain. It causes alterations to her vision and memory, controlling her at times like a puppet. This plays on the fear of cancerous growths growing unchecked with the body, which can mess with perception and memory. It also plays on the idea that evil is cancer that grows inside someone. That someone may not even be aware of its presence until it has already taken root. Maddie’s wish to have a blood connection with a child is amusing, since she continues to have a similar connection with her malformed brother. The other horror element that seems possibly even more terrifying is the elements of spousal abuse. While this only comes up briefly at the beginning of the film, there is obviously a history of abuse from Derek. This too is akin to a cancer, or a malignancy that needs to be excised, as this type of abuse can often go unseen by friends and family, until it’s too late.

While I had higher hopes for Malignant, it’s not a bad film. It has some strong themes and a definitive point of view. The scares, especially the early ones, are sufficiently creepy and probably stronger in the confines of a theater. It just doesn’t seem to be a horror film that resonates strongly with me. This is why there are all different types of horror films, from slasher movies to psychological thrillers. If one film, or one type of film, doesn’t trigger your fear senses, then try watching something else. There’s plenty out there to be found.

Assorted Musings

• The real question that comes from watching this film is what job did Derek have that allowed them to afford this huge, gothic house in Seattle?
• Annabelle Wallis was also the lead in Annabelle, about a possessed doll, a spin-off from The Conjuring universe of films–not directed by James Wan, however.