Malignant

The last 30 minutes of Malignant are as warped and violent as mainstream Hollywood horror gets and it's here the film earns it's 18 certificate, in a time when that little red circle rarely gets bandied about anymore. The only issue is it's a struggle to get to here because the hour or so beforehand is as boring and bland as mainstream Hollywood horror gets.

Madison Lake (Annabelle Wallis) gets her head cracked off a wall by her abusive husband and when he's found dead days later the full glare of the Seattle police department shines her way. Since the attack she's been having dreams and visions and during them she's seeing people, including her dick husband, being violently ripped asunder by a dark jittery figure without a face. The cops don't believe her and as people go missing and the bodycount rises they start closing in. The only person on her side is her sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson) who delves back into Madison's past looking for clues as to what's causing the horrific things she's seeing. What she finds is.........oh let's just say it's disturbing.

Director James Wan knows his way around a horror film, having directed numerous installments of Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring. He made the first Fast And Furious film to blast by the 1 billion dollar mark at the box office and repeated that feat with 2018's Aquaman. He obviously knows what he's doing behind the camera, some clever visual nods to classic 70's horror films show he's a fan of the genre and he has what it takes to create memorable films so quite why he felt the need to make the first 2/3's of Malignant so dull and derivative is anyone's guess. It makes the horror movie cardinal sin by being boring. Horror by it's very nature should never be boring. Under developed cops straight out of the cliche handbook, tropey horror sequences augmented to the hilt with CGI overkill ripped right out of his own Conjuring universe, a rinse and repeat cycle of stalk and slash murders by a demonic presence that looks like it crawled out of the Ringu television set. Worse of all is a dull heroine who does little but shriek and stare wide eyed. You'll be sitting there wondering why everyone is talking so much about this one....

Then it happens in a barren room, a screaming crowd, spitting and vicious, fists and feet flying and all hell breaks lose. Skulls split, arms shatter, bodies break and faces splatter (poetry), the camera turns into a whirling dervish as the screen turns red with blood and gore, going all John Woo by way of a certain famous James Cameron film (you'll know the one). It's giddy, it's nuts, you'll feel awful for enjoying it so much and then you'll wonder why the hell the rest of the film couldn't have been this much fun, this laced with the chaotic energy you know Wan is capable of. It's a welcome slice of insanity after 70 minutes of drudgery but it's just not enough to save the film. Fingers crossed the sequel will be able to spread the love a little more. Oh yeah, there's definitely going to be a sequel.

Malignant is in cinemas now. It finishes well but that mopey first hour is going to be a dealbreaker for most. Meh-lignant.