James Wan has been one of the most visionary names in cinema since the first day he entered our lives with his still masterpiece, Saw. In fact, in my personal opinion, he is the best director alive right now. There is no one who makes the directing profession as good and creative as Wan. The way he uses his camera is so impressive that I look forward to every movie he shoots. Even if he will direct a wedding, I will watch it. I am exactly on this line. Malignant was, of course, a movie I was looking forward to. And it was worth my wait. Wan has proven time and time again that his vision has not yet reached his limits. I will write the horror part of the movie in more detail soon, but let me tell you from the beginning that I will explain it at length: As long as he continues to make films, he will remain the number one in this business.
Let’s briefly touch on the subject… While Madison is waiting for compassion from her husband due to the pain she suffered from her pregnancy, she bangs her head against the wall with her husband’s sudden outburst. In the evening of hitting her head, she begins to see things that she cannot fathom. These things first took her pregnancy; then kills people from her past that she couldn’t remember. And that things make her witness for all the murders it did.
First of all, it should be said that it is not possible to say fear for Malignant. Although it makes the beginning as horror movie, in time it evolves to completely action horror. Of course, as someone who wanted to watch horror movie, I was disappointed little bit, but James Wan makes up for everything with his directing approach. James Wan, who has managed to present a new and surprising angle, movement and approach in almost every movie he directed, shows us once again that his vision has not yet reached its limits after The Conjuring 2.
His directing in The Conjuring 2 will likely remain the best of his career. But Malignant just as brilliant as English Amytiville. Many scenes in the movie are impressive enough to be enchanted. The bird’s eye view of the house, the prison fight and the chaos of the police station gave me the goosebumps. We should also talk about the design created by the director for Gabriel. The scene where Gabriel runs straight down the hall and turns left, was one of the craziest things I’ve seen in a long time. James Wan has used the character’s double-sided movement in the fights perfectly. The choreography of the fight in the prison and police station was impressive enough to raise the level of cinematography.
Now there are some details that define James Wan cinema. High-end and show-stopping shots, fog creeping through the house and floor, female characters struggling with challenges. We can find these details on Malignant too. Although the topics change, Wan’s female characters do not change and they fight against strange monsters on an on. This time, however, the situation is a little bit different. The female character has to struggle with the “male” living as a tumor in her body. Wan’s movies doesn’t have plot-twists, mostly. At the beginning of Malignant, we actually saw the thing behind the curtain and what we will encounter in the throughout the movie, but i had hard time to understand where we will meet with that thing in the story. Couldn’t connect the dots. For this reason, the film managed to preserve its mystery until the end. No matter how much the action is in the foreground, the movie is interesting in my opinion.
To sum it up… Malignant is a movie that stands out more for its action than horror, even though it is marketed as a horror movie. While it doesn’t have a high-level story, it sure does tell an engaging journey. The director is already ahead of the story with his shots. If you are interested in James Wan’s cinema, you will most likely reach the peaks of pleasure while watching it. The director’s design of Gabriel and the action he builds on that design are chillingly clever. Considering that Malignant he’s one of the weakest films of his filmography, even his weakest is visionary.
Cast & Crew
director: James Wan
writers: James Wan, Ingrid Bisu, Akela Cooper
starring: Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young
USA | 2021 | 111 MINUTES |