Biological bond – review of the film “Malignant”

Who is Gabriel?

We move to 1999, to a children’s hospital. Dr. Florence Weaver (Jacqueline McKenzie) tapes the case of Gabriel, a young boy potentially suffering from psychosis, on tape. The recording is interrupted by Dr. Victor Fields (Christian Clemenson) and urges the woman to the operating room. Massacred bodies of doctors and other employees of the facility fly out of the room with impetus. Upon reaching their destination, they are faced with a terrible sight. The little patient behaves aggressively and attacks the intervening staff with enormous force. However, this is not the main reason for the terror of the two doctors. The boy looks more like a monster than a man. More than 20 years later, after the events at the hospital, we meet Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis), who is expecting a baby. Together with her husband, Derek (Jake Abel), they live in a large mansion and prepare for the birth of their offspring. The apparent family idyll, however, does not last too long. Under the cover of night, the woman’s partner is brutally murdered. The terrified woman testifies to the police that she had a vision in which she saw the murder and its perpetrator. As it turns out later, this is not the only murder of this type in Seatlle. Other similar events take place in the city, and the victims are doctors who are already retired. Investigators Kekoa Shaw (George Young) and Regina Moss (Michole Briana White) are dealing with the case, linking the murders to the murder of Madison’s husband, and Gabriel, a former hospital patient who seems familiar to the protagonist, appears on the list of suspects. Under the cover of night, the woman’s partner is brutally murdered. The terrified woman testifies to the police that she had a vision in which she saw the murder and its perpetrator. As it turns out later, this is not the only murder of this type in Seatlle. Other similar events take place in the city, and the victims are doctors who are already retired. Investigators Kekoa Shaw (George Young) and Regina Moss (Michole Briana White) are involved in the case of combining the murders with the murder of Madison’s husband, and Gabriel, a former hospital patient who seems familiar to the protagonist, appears on the list of suspects. Under the cover of night, the woman’s partner is brutally murdered. The terrified woman testifies to the police that she had a vision in which she saw the murder and its perpetrator. As it turns out later, this is not the only murder of this type in Seatlle. Other similar events take place in the city, and the victims are doctors who are already retired. Investigators Kekoa Shaw (George Young) and Regina Moss (Michole Briana White) are involved in the case of combining the murders with the murder of Madison’s husband, and Gabriel, a former hospital patient who seems familiar to the protagonist, appears on the list of suspects. Other similar events take place in the city, and the victims are doctors who are already retired. Investigators Kekoa Shaw (George Young) and Regina Moss (Michole Briana White) are involved in the case of combining the murders with the murder of Madison’s husband, and Gabriel, a former hospital patient who seems familiar to the protagonist, appears on the list of suspects. Other similar events take place in the city, and the victims are doctors who are already retired. Investigators Kekoa Shaw (George Young) and Regina Moss (Michole Briana White) are involved in the case of combining the murders with the murder of Madison’s husband, and Gabriel, a former hospital patient who seems familiar to the protagonist, appears on the list of suspects.

A genre mish you have

If someone, after watching the trailer and poster, which is a preview of the new James Wan horror movie, hoped to see the story of a family once again struggling with a persistent spirit that threatens the lives of the main characters, then he may be disappointed. Yes, in Malignant we can find elements typical of the director’s workshop, such as family drama, situational humor or self-narration, but it is definitely a return to the roots and an attempt to break with the label of the creator of one of the most popular universes of contemporary horror cinema. For horror has more to do with Saw than with The Conjuring or the Insidious. Moreover, it is not a hermetic work based mainly on classic jump scares and breaking the beaten path. Wan goes much deeper – to the human subconscious, the psychology of depth, and often to the gore aesthetics , from which he started his world career. This fact does not mean, however, that he has completely abandoned his previous habits.

Malignant is steeped in what many viewers love the director’s art of creating horror films – an eloquent fascination with the classics of the genre. The viewers will not miss the more or less obvious references to giallo films, popular mainly in the seventies and eighties in Italian cinema, and later propagated by many filmmakers. The poster itself is an expression of film inspiration, referring to the works of such masters as Hitchcock and Argento. A blade aimed at a woman’s body can be found on the posters of many Italian classics of the genre. In turn, we can find more analogies in the film itself at the convention level, and more precisely in the way of building the atmosphere and the play of lights. The poetics of colors are dominated by red, shades of gray and black. The camera settings are also important – once we follow the main character, seeing reality through her eyes, and other times we observe her from a bird’s eye view as she runs away from the alleged murderer. Also, one of the scenes is a blink of an eye at the creators of Evil Dead and this will certainly not escape the attention of fans of Sam Raimi’s work. All this makes the Malignant a genre mishmash through which Wan tries to show us his various faces and point out that in modern horror cinema he has much more to offer than stories about ghosts, haunts and astral travels.

The devil is in our heads

So far, in Wan’s works, the devil has been stuck in an atmosphere and ghastly characterizations, which have become the iconography of contemporary horror cinema. In the event of an Malignant more appropriate statement would be that the devil is in our heads. There are psychological threads, so far rarely shown in the director’s paintings. Although solving the mystery of Gabriel, with whom Madison has felt a deeper bond from the beginning, is more trivial than we might think, it is also possible to look at the film’s drama from the perspective of psychology. The ghastly visions of brutal murders that the main character experiences turn out to be closer to reality, and behind them hides the terrifying truth about the past and her own identity. Therefore, childhood traumas, an imaginary friend, multiple miscarriages and not remembering the first seven years of the main character’s life will be of importance here. In addition, family secrets that, as it happens in this type of productions, come to light, when something bad starts to happen and people die. What’s more, Wan skillfully loses the plot, shedding new light on things. As a result, he manages to keep viewers tense and waiting for the further course of events and the solution of the criminal puzzle.

How is the whole thing?

Malignant however, it remains a film quite uneven. Individual acts are weaker and others are better. The whole thing gives the impression of a not-so-well-arranged puzzle, especially in terms of formal aspects. The horror film is not without absurdities, as well as errors that usually characterize B-class productions. Characterization and special effects are also worth mentioning. In the case of creating the character of the antagonist, Wan was guided by rather minimalism, not making too much effort to create this creation, while in the scenes of the confrontation between the murderer and a group of cops, he spares no special effects. Nevertheless, the picture can arouse curiosity, keep you in suspense and pleasantly surprise, although the director also does not avoid clichés and resorting to genre clichés. None of the elements introduced by him in the film is revolutionary, both in terms of scenery (hospital, underground tunnels, dark corridors) and storylines. Although from this angle viewers can count on a nice twist in the third act, giving the story a deeper meaning and symbolic meaning. The horror film sometimes gets caught up in the grotesque that makes it hard not to laugh. However, knowing James Wan’s directing skills, it was probably partly a deliberate measure that allowed him to redefine his work and break with the label of the creator of top ghost stories. The number of perspectives and perceptions of the film means that it can be analyzed in various ways, looking for a deeper message. For some, it may be a good form of fun on an autumn evening, and for others, a story about a woman experienced in her life who wanted to feel a real biological bond with someone. Although from this angle viewers can count on a nice twist in the third act, giving the story a deeper meaning and symbolic meaning. The horror film sometimes gets caught up in the grotesque that makes it hard not to laugh. However, knowing James Wan’s directing skills, it was probably partly a deliberate measure that allowed him to redefine his work and break with the label of the creator of top ghost stories. The number of perspectives and perceptions of the film means that it can be analyzed in various ways, looking for a deeper message. For some, it may be a good form of fun on an autumn evening, and for others, a story about a woman experienced in her life who wanted to feel a real biological bond with someone. Although from this angle viewers can count on a nice twist in the third act, giving the story a deeper meaning and symbolic meaning. The horror film sometimes gets caught up in the grotesque that makes it hard not to laugh. However, knowing James Wan’s directing skills, it was probably partly a deliberate measure that allowed him to redefine his work and break with the label of the creator of top ghost stories. The number of perspectives and perceptions of the film means that it can be analyzed in various ways, looking for a deeper message. For some, it may be a good form of fun on an autumn evening, and for others, a story about a woman experienced in her life who wanted to feel a real biological bond with someone. which makes it hard not to laugh. However, knowing James Wan’s directing skills, it was probably partly a deliberate measure that allowed him to redefine his work and break with the label of the creator of top ghost stories. The number of perspectives and perceptions of the film means that it can be analyzed in various ways, looking for a deeper message. For some, it may be a good form of fun on an autumn evening, and for others, a story about a woman experienced in her life who wanted to feel a real biological bond with someone. which makes it hard not to laugh. However, knowing James Wan’s directing skills, it was probably partly a deliberate measure that allowed him to redefine his work and break with the label of the creator of top ghost stories. The number of perspectives and perceptions of the film means that it can be analyzed in various ways, looking for a deeper message. For some, it may be a good form of fun on an autumn evening, and for others, a story about a woman experienced in her life who wanted to feel a real biological bond with someone. looking for a deeper message. For some, it may be a good form of fun on an autumn evening, and for others, a story about a woman experienced in her life who wanted to feel a real biological bond with someone. looking for a deeper message. For some, it may be a good form of fun on an autumn evening, and for others, a story about a woman experienced in her life who wanted to feel a real biological bond with someone.