Horror Malignant | James Wan

[Prison Mike]

Not sure how I feel about this movie. The first half or maybe even 2/3 was your typical slasher film. Kind of boring. Then it got really weird and I was going “WTF” at the end. It was definitely an original concept and I give Wan props for that. Overall this movie is like a 7/10 for me (which isn’t bad). I wish the first 2/3 of the movie kept me as interested as the last third. Glad I watched it on HBO Max though. Probably wasn’t going to watch it in theaters anyway. The horror genre is very hit or miss for me.

 

[chamber-music]

I guessed most of the elements of the twist about 1/3 of the way into the film although not the physical elements.

The film was pretty good. Parts of it reminded me Wan's other work. Some bits reminded me of eighties film Basket Case. Felt like Wan was influenced by some Italian Giallo cinema as well. Some of the shot choices and lighting felt very Giallo.

Also felt like by more recent horror stuff like Orphan, Mama and so on.

 

[Kane52630]

My review
At the Movies with Kane and BN
4/5

So glad I was wrong about this. This is this the best kind of giallo/grindhouse flick.

 

[Kane52630]

I guessed most of the elements of the twist about 1/3 of the way into the film although not the physical elements.

The film was pretty good. Parts of it reminded me Wan's other work. Felt like Wan was influenced by some Italian Giallo cinema as well. Some of the shot choices and lighting felt very Giallo.

Also felt like by more recent horror stuff like Orphan, Mama and so on.

Spoiler

It also reminded me of Basket Case for obvious reasons

 

[Dave McFly]

wow this was insane, but in a good way as many others said first part starts of like typical slasher horror, I was NOT expecting the twist, I heard myself saying WTF a few times. Oh and that camera angles of her running through her house were AWESOME, props to the team that set that shot up.

 

[Joe Von Zombie]

This is one of worst films I've seen get a wide release in recent memory. Every time I try to give James Wan the benefit of the doubt, he always let's me down. I appreciate his spirit and what he's trying to do, but everything just falls flat here. His best film is still Death Sentence and it's not even that good. It's just a better Death Wish remake than the actual Death Wish remake.

Spoiler: Spoiler

The "twist" (if you can even call it that) is spoiled by the title and the first 15 minutes

 

[MOVIELORD101]

This is one of worst films I've seen get a wide release in recent memory. Every time I try to give James Wan the benefit of the doubt, he always let's me down. I appreciate his spirit and what he's trying to do, but everything just falls flat here. His best film is still Death Sentence and it's not even that good. It's just a better Death Wish remake than the actual Death Wish remake.

Spoiler: Spoiler

The "twist" (if you can even call it that) is spoiled by the title and the first 15 minutes

You seem to be in the minority, as most people seem to be enjoying it.

Spoiler

Also, the title could've easily been just symbolic for all we knew. It wasn't really "spoiling" anything unless you looked up spoilers after release. And I don't know how the first 15 minutes gave it away unless you're referring to the silhouette on the couch. I personally just classified it as coincidence, since Gabriel's "separate" form also has long hair. Your arguments are ridiculously petty and nit-picky. Are you sure you don't write for CinemaSins?

 

[Prison Mike]

You seem to be in the minority, as most people seem to be enjoying it.

Spoiler

Also, the title could've easily been just symbolic for all we knew. It wasn't really "spoiling" anything unless you looked up spoilers after release. And I don't know how the first 15 minutes gave it away unless you're referring to the silhouette on the couch. I personally just classified it as coincidence, since Gabriel's "separate" form also has long hair. Your arguments are ridiculously petty and nit-picky. Are you sure you don't write for CinemaSins?

It has a C Cinemascore and 51% audience rating on rotten tomatoes.

 

[Joe Von Zombie]

You seem to be in the minority, as most people seem to be enjoying it.

Spoiler

Also, the title could've easily been just symbolic for all we knew. It wasn't really "spoiling" anything unless you looked up spoilers after release. And I don't know how the first 15 minutes gave it away unless you're referring to the silhouette on the couch. I personally just classified it as coincidence, since Gabriel's "separate" form also has long hair. Your arguments are ridiculously petty and nit-picky. Are you sure you don't write for CinemaSins?

Most people are idiots.

Spoiler

I had only seen the trailer prior watching this on Max and didn't even see that until I saw Candyman. Once the doctor screamed "We have to cut the cancer out!" I knew where this film was going and what the twist would be. It's painfully telegraphed.

 

[MOVIELORD101]

I really think you lot are being VERY rigid. Not just in this thread, but a lot of people on these forums act like stick-up-their-asses "know it alls". Really have half a mind to leave this damn forum.

Regardless, I honestly just got done watching this. This movie was, to an extent, a gradual build, so I get some of the criticism. But even then, this isn't like The Conjuring or Insidious where it's nothing but jumpscares.

And then came the third act. HOLY ****.

Spoiler

I don't care HOW "predictable" you claim the twist is. The reveal in the tapes and the ensuing massacre in the prison cell is probably going to go down as one of the most ****ed up moments in horror. My jaw was on the ****ling floor.

I'm not going to go and say this was Wan's masterpiece, but compared to Insidious and the 2 Conjuring films, this is WAY better than those. This was actually scary and not just cheap-ass jumpscares. He was actually TRYING something with this. If you guys don't like it that's your problem. Me? At least I got some good horror out of the guy for a change.

7.5 for me. Deal with it.

 

[Prison Mike]

I mean, it’s all subjective. I thought Conjuring and Insidious were scarier.

 

[ironwez20]

I don’t care what anyone says that twist wasn’t predictable at all. Weird for anyone to say it was. I didn’t expect it

 

[Joe Von Zombie]

I really think you lot are being VERY rigid. Not just in this thread, but a lot of people on these forums act like stick-up-their-asses "know it alls". Really have half a mind to leave this damn forum.

Regardless, I honestly just got done watching this. This movie was, to an extent, a gradual build, so I get some of the criticism. But even then, this isn't like The Conjuring or Insidious where it's nothing but jumpscares.

And then came the third act. HOLY ****.

Spoiler

I don't care HOW "predictable" you claim the twist is. The reveal in the tapes and the ensuing massacre in the prison cell is probably going to go down as one of the most ****ed up moments in horror. My jaw was on the ****ling floor.

I'm not going to go and say this was Wan's masterpiece, but compared to Insidious and the 2 Conjuring films, this is WAY better than those. This was actually scary and not just cheap-ass jumpscares. He was actually TRYING something with this. If you guys don't like it that's your problem. Me? At least I got some good horror out of the guy for a change.

7.5 for me. Deal with it.

Maybe if a competent filmmaker or screenwriter were behind this thing because I think there's good ideas here but I was literally laughing at the prison sequence. The vast majority of this movie is unintentionally funny. If you're going to do the Basket Case/Gallo, you need understand the material your paying homage to. When Ti West made House of the Devil, he tried to make that movie as authentic to that era as possible and it's a better film for it. He didn't load it up with piss poor CGI, Murder Fu and a soundtrack that sounds like B Sides from the Spawn film from 97.

 

[Eddie Dean]

It's not unintentional

 

[MOVIELORD101]

Maybe if a competent filmmaker or screenwriter were behind this thing because I think there's good ideas here but I was literally laughing at the prison sequence. The vast majority of this movie is unintentionally funny. If you're going to do the Basket Case/Gallo, you need understand the material your paying homage to. When Ti West made House of the Devil, he tried to make that movie as authentic to that era as possible and it's a better film for it. He didn't load it up with piss poor CGI, Murder Fu and a soundtrack that sounds like B Sides from the Spawn film from 97.

NOT a fair comparison. Ti West is a ****ing hack. House of the Devil has practically NOTHING happening for most of the movie until the end. It's just some gullible girl wandering through a damn house for 40+ minutes with NO atmosphere or tension.

Either way, it sounds like you're really picky about horror. This movie was meant to be a throwback to late 80s early 90s stuff like Basket Case. If you don't like that, then that's your problem. Hell, the movie has a 74% from the critics. That's not at all bad. Audience scores are very subjective IMO and can be tampered with, so I don't care about those. Remember what happened to the Captain Marvel and Star Wars scores a while back?

 

[Joe Von Zombie]

NOT a fair comparison. Ti West is a ****ing hack. House of the Devil has practically NOTHING happening for most of the movie until the end. It's just some gullible girl wandering through a damn house for 40+ minutes with NO atmosphere or tension.

Either way, it sounds like you're really picky about horror. This movie was meant to be a throwback to late 80s early 90s stuff like Basket Case. If you don't like that, then that's your problem. Hell, the movie has a 74% from the critics. That's not at all bad. Audience scores are very subjective IMO and can be tampered with, so I don't care about those. Remember what happened to the Captain Marvel and Star Wars scores a while back?

And as a throwback, it failed miserably. You call West a hack and yet I'd gladly take House of the Devil and the Innkeepers over this.

 

[Erik20]

I don’t care what anyone says that twist wasn’t predictable at all. Weird for anyone to say it was. I didn’t expect it

I thought I already figured it out at the start

Spoiler

that Gabriel was either a combined twin or some sort of tumor that they cut out. (Which was kind of obvious) I didn't expect at all that he was in the back of her head, and she was walking around backwards Also because they made it seem like Gabriel was a seperate person when the husband was killed.

I'm glad I was able to watch this movie without barely knowing anything about it. I assumed this was going to be one of those PG13 "ghost movies"....

 

[MOVIELORD101]

I thought I already figured it out at the start

Spoiler

that Gabriel was either a combined twin or some sort of tumor that they cut out. (Which was kind of obvious) I didn't expect at all that he was in the back of her head, and she was walking around backwards Also because they made it seem like Gabriel was a seperate person when the husband was killed.

I'm glad I was able to watch this movie without barely knowing anything about it. I assumed this was going to be one of those PG13 "ghost movies"....

Exactly. They could've made Gabriel yet another demon or have the third act turn into a crappy "possession/exorcism" movie like The Unborn and Wan didn't. I though he was doing his best to be inventive and not going jumpscare crazy or kissing the asses of those con artists the Warrens. Heaven forbid a horror movie actually has something horrifying in it. Joe, your millage may vary, but regardless, Wan's clearly trying to get back to proper horror after doing action for a few years. Forgive him if he's slightly rusty. I honestly think my 7.5 score was pretty damn fair.

 

[samsnee]

I had heard nothing of this movie much less seen a trailer for it. Not really into horror films but since it was on HBOMax figured why not.

Thought it was a bit boring and cliche until they got to the jail scene. That was some fantastic B level effects and acting.

 

[Spider-Fan83]

you didn't miss much not having seen the trailers/ads... they were misleading to say the least

I get misdirection to maybe keep the reveal of the twist a secret, but this was just false advertisement lol

 

[TheDreamMaster]

I’m sort of thinking I need to rewatch it with an idea of what I’m going into. I didn’t much care for it on my first watch, but it may be just because it was very different from what I thought it was going to be. The police station scene was actually really cool, but i found the movie as a whole all over the place.

 

[Ninjablade]

As someone who really liked the movie, I can definitely understand why the reception is very mixed and a lot of people don't really like it.

 

[chamber-music]

The spooky Pixies where is my mind cover work well in my opinion.

 

[Kane52630]

The moment the doctor came out and said ""IT'S TIME WE CUT OUT THE CANCER." in dramatic af fashion, I knew what movie this was going to be and I'm glad it wasn't another Conjuring movie.

 

[Kane52630]