We should rightfully be celebrating the massive success of big budget blockbusters like Spider-Man: No Way Home, No Time to Die, Fast & Furious 9, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the rest, which have all gone a long way to restoring the theatrical industry to something resembling former glories.
However, it hasn’t been a rosy picture across the board. Adult-skewing drama continues to struggle, while non-franchise horror has also suffered greatly. Halloween Kills, A Quiet Place Part II and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It had brand awareness to fall back on, something James Wan’s Malignant didn’t possess, other than from the filmmaker’s name and reputation.
Which is a crying shame, because the original tale is without a doubt the single most bats*t insane studio-backed project to come out of Hollywood this year. Annabelle Wallis’ Madison is haunted by dreams that have troubled her since childhood, but they could turn out to be visions of a serial murderer committing horrific acts.
Suffice to say, it isn’t that straightforward. Not even close. The third act of Malignant is utterly deranged and positively ludicrous, but in the best possible way. It hardly screams Yuletide cheer, but it’s nonetheless been rebounding on HBO Max’s most-watched list this weekend, as per FlixPatrol.
