{"id":23772,"date":"2021-09-21T19:48:01","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T09:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23772"},"modified":"2021-12-07T19:48:24","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T09:48:24","slug":"malignant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23772","title":{"rendered":"Malignant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tagfilm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"malignant-poster\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director:\u00a0 James Wan
\nWriters:\u00a0 James Wan, Akela Cooper, Ingrid Bisu
\nCast:\u00a0 Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young, Jacqueline Mackenzie<\/p>\n

A<\/span> pregnant young woman named Madison Lake (Maddie Hasson) feels unwell and leaves home from work.\u00a0 There, her abusive husband Derek confronts her and attacks her.\u00a0 During the confrontation he\u00a0hits Madison’s head, drawing blood.\u00a0 She\u00a0locks herself in her bedroom and eventually goes to sleep.\u00a0\u00a0She has a premonition of a man entering their home and violently attacking Derek.\u00a0 When she comes to, she discovers Derek is dead and that the entity responsible may still be in the house.<\/p>\n

From this basic set up, James Wan has delivered one of the finest horror films of the year.\u00a0 The initial setup will feel like pretty standard horror fare to fans of the genre, but even so, it’s\u00a0supremely polished and handsomely put together.\u00a0 Wan is just 44 years old and yet\u00a0he is arguably the most influential creator of horror films this century having created multiple legendary franchises –\u00a0Saw, The Conjuring, Insidious<\/em> – before pivoting to tentpole blockbuster action movies\u00a0such as\u00a0The Fast and the Furious 7<\/em> and\u00a0Aquaman<\/em>, both of which grossed over a billion dollars at the box office.\u00a0\u00a0Malignant<\/em> represents a return to his horror roots and from the first hour of\u00a0the film you can see he hasn’t skipped a beat.\u00a0 Everything from the camera work that teases the unseen supernatural presence to the unnerving soundtrack is meticulously put together and enourmously enjoyable to watch.<\/p>\n

Maddie Hasson is excellent as Madison, the woman who keeps seeing nightmarish visions of a deadly attacker and begins to suspect they may actually be real events.\u00a0 The role requires plenty of big emotions and reactions to the madness around her and she absolutely nails the delivery.\u00a0 A lot of the success of the film’s big third act rides on her performance.<\/p>\n

\"malignant-scene\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And what a third act it is.\u00a0 The start of the film suggests a well honed but formulaic supernatural thriller.\u00a0 Just when you think you know the answer, James Wan changes the question.\u00a0\u00a0Malignant<\/em> has an absolutely bombastic, totally insane, stupid-bordering-on-genuis twist in store for its audience.\u00a0 I watched this at home on a quiet rainy Tuesday night and the moment\u00a0Malignant<\/em> played its hand, I stood and yelled at the tv.\u00a0 Then basically remained standing, jaw agape, at the incredible closing act.\u00a0 It’s madness.\u00a0 Out of this world.\u00a0 Completely bonkers.\u00a0 I loved it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of all the films I’ve watched during this hellacious and interminably long pandemic, this,\u00a0this<\/em> is one I wished the most I had seen in a crowded movie theatre, just to soak in the audience reaction.\u00a0 It would’ve been a riotous response to rival\u00a0Get Out<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Malignant<\/em> is one of those films where a wildly inventive movie director has gone out and made their riches in Hollywood and then returned to make a small-scale picture in a genre they’re comfortable in.\u00a0 It’s Guillermo Del Toro’s\u00a0Crimson Peak<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s Sam Raimi’s\u00a0Drag Me To Hell<\/em>.\u00a0 Films that probably don’t rate that highly or stand out in their filmographies, but are very much appreciated by long time\u00a0aficionados.<\/p>\n

I love this movie.\u00a0 I heard some word of mouth buzz, gave it a chance and never looked back.\u00a0 It’s my most enthusiastically recommended film of 2021 and everyone I’ve convinced to watch it has loved it.\u00a0 One of the year’s scariest, strangest and wildest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2993,2992,2994],"class_list":["post-23772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-annabelle-wallis","tag-james-wan","tag-maddie-hasson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23772"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23790,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23772\/revisions\/23790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}