Malignant (2021) Dir: James Wan
- Ridley Coote
- Jul 5, 2023
- 2 min read
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James Wan, who is best-known for the iconic Saw franchise, returned to direct this 2021 horror film. Unfortunately, it only serves to demonstrate his inconsistencies behind the camera.
A boring plot, woeful acting performances, mediocre CGI and laughable attempts at horror make this one of the worst horrors I've seen. I struggled to make it through the film, to the point I actually turned it off multiple times, because I simply could not watch on.
The film failed to elicit any fear, nor did it do anything particularly creative, beyond one admittedly interesting twist - the novelty of which was stifled by the terrible way in which it was shown and then explored upon.
The only major plus for me is the occasionally cool camera shot, including one in particular overhead shot that was genuinely excellent.
Annabelle Wallis stars, but failed to impress in all but a few scenes, in which she was adequate. Anytime she needed to do anything substantial - a scream, for example - it was not remotely believable, and meant I could not take her at all seriously.
Maddie Hasson and McKenna Grace at least add some legitimacy to the cast performances, but they are an isolated duo in that regard.
The rest of the cast were tepid and forgettable - the most notable of these were George Young, Michole Brianna White, Ingrid Bisu, Susanna Thompson and Jake Abel.
Overall, although I can appreciate that James Wan tried something here, for me, there is no avoiding that this was a truly bad horror film. I had seen and heard some good things about this one, but it failed to leave anything but a negative impression on me.
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