So consider this list if you were to put these six films in a blender and project the results, it might somewhat resemble Malignant.Īfter making his directorial debut with Saw, Wan’s sophomore film, Dead Silence, was primed to be a major hit when it was released in early 2007 (between the release of the third and fourth Saws), but audiences just couldn’t connect to the film’s kooky puppet-driven plot or Hammer horror aesthetic. And even for those familiar with the Conjurings (which keep their weirdness to a relative minimum) might benefit from a little primer of past horror films that immediately sprang to mind while watching it. And yet it still remains unmistakably his, with the tricky camerawork, (indoor!) fog machines cranked up to 11, and bright reds and blues that have been a feature of all his previous genre exercises.Īnyone who only knows Wan for his billion dollar blockbusters like Aquaman and Furious 7 might be thrown for a loop by the approach. Throughout Malignant, an astute horror fan should feel right at home, as the script (by Wan, Ingrid Bisu, and Akela Cooper) primarily draws influence from Italian films of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but also Dark Castle’s late ‘90s/early ‘00s funhouse thrills, Hammer horror, and the more polarizing entries in the filmographies of Wes Craven and John Carpenter.
He usually succeeds.Īnd he clearly has much love and respect for the horror masters of yore, whose names are often mentioned along with his when talking about the great craftsman of the genre. Even when dealing with something based on fact in his Conjuring films, Wan likes to challenge himself by embracing the inherent hokeyness of something like a giant crooked ghost and then figuring out how to scare you anyway. Yes, there are some questionable decisions to be found in its 112-minute runtime (including the, uh, 112-minute runtime), but they are the decisions from a filmmaker who has made it clear over the past 17 years that he is not interested in presenting any semblance of reality in his projects (cue Dom and Brian in Furious 7 driving through not one but two skyscrapers to land in a third). James Wan swings big in his latest horror movie. The worst movies provoke no feelings whatsoever, ones where I struggle to remember any specific detail by the time I get home from the theater (or go upstairs after settling for a home premiere, as 2021 often allows). That description triggers one thing in this writer: full and unbridled excitement for whatever madness Wan cooked up. A friend who caught an early screening of Malignant said it was far and away the worst film from The Conjuring and Insidious director James Wan, and a contender for every “worst of 2021” list.
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