Written by James Wan And Ingrid Bisu And Akele Cooper
Directed by James Wan
Gabriel: "Sooner or later, I will get out."
Madison: "I know but next time, I'll be ready for you."
With a certain time of year around the corner, it's definitely time to get back into the horror mode and on a roll this year seem to be James Wan. With producer roles on at least three different hit movies this year, this one however sees the Australian co-writing and directing this rather interesting tale.
We start with a flashback at the Simion Research Hospital where a group of doctors are trying to control a volatile patient named Gabriel (Ray Chase). There's a cryptic line about cutting out the cancer but it's not long before we move forward into 2021 where the main events of this movie take place.
Our protagonist Madison (Annabelle Wallis) has endured several miscarriages in the past two years and with an abusive husband, Derek (Jake Abel), she's at her wits end. When a strange home invasion from Gabriel results in another miscarriage and Derek's death, it's not long before Madison is reunited with adopted sister, Sydney (Maddie Hasson) and old family secrets wind up being revealed.
Along with Madison being adopted by Sydney's parents prior to the latter being born, Madison's real name was Emily and Gabriel is actually her parasitic twin brother, whom the doctors couldn't completely remove. Because of this, Gabriel can take over Madison's body and wastes no time in this movie holding their birth mother, Serena (Jean Louise Kelly) captive while detectives Kekoa Shaw (George Young) and Regina Moss (Michole Briana White) find themselves also draw into this deadly battle of wills between siblings.
It's certainly a deadly battle between both Gabriel and Madison/Emily as the two of them fight for command over the latter's body. Gabriel goes out of his way to kill everyone he views as responsible for separating him from his sister while Madison fights for her innocence, sanity and to protect the one family link she has left.
While the battle reached an obvious victory for Madison with the threat that Gabriel could regain control at a different point, this definitely feels like it should be a one time only event. Wallis does an excellent job as Madison and she's backed up a strong supporting cast in a story to it's credit does take some rather interesting turns.
- James Wan's wife, Ingrid Bisu also plays Winnie, a co-worker of Shaw and Moss who seemingly had a crush on the former. Shaw also seemed to have a crush on Sydney.
- The use of a medical trophy fashioned into a weapon was clever as was the backwards costume that Gabriel had Madison wear when committing the murders.
- Another movie that had the dual releases of theatres and HBO Max.
- Chronology: The movie opened with a flashback to 1993 while the main action was in the present day.
Malignant seems to be provoking quite the reaction but I've got to say that I really enjoyed it a lot. I wouldn't go as far as to say its the best horror movie that James Wan has done in his career but it's definitely a contender. Personally I'd leave it as a one off story but I wouldn't be too shocked if some kind of follow up gets considered.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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