THE OVERVIEW: Malignant (2021) - The Noise by James Patterson and J.D. Barker - L.A. Times by Stuart Woods

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Malignant (2021) *** out of *****: It can’t be stressed enough how weird a movie Malignant is, and not in a good way. Directed and co-written by James Wan, the man who basically re-invigorated the horror genre in 2010 with his stylish and brilliantly inventive Insidious, Malignant is a movie that could only have been made by someone like Wan. Wan, thanks to his numerous billions-grossing blockbusters like Furious 7, The Conjuring series, and Aquaman, has the cache to arm-twist studios into giving him a few million dollars to make whatever he wants. Malignant is the result. It’s a fun movie, but it’s also self-indulgent to the point of silliness, and the climax is nothing short of ludicrous. The fault lies with the messy script - there’s almost zero characterization - and Wan’s operatic approach, an homage to the Giallo genre, which is gratingly flamboyant. A spectacular misfire.

Review: THE CONJURING 2 (2016)

Entertaining sequel about the further adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren, real life demonologists and ghost hunters. This time the focus is on the "Enfiled Poltergeist", a sensational true story that took place in England in the late 70s. Director/co-writer James Wan lays out his usual stack of tricks, which include spooky visuals and some truly frightening moments. While Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson do their best to portray the Warrens as a likable, ordinary couple whose life's work happens to be fighting evil in all its forms.

But Wan's technique is getting repetitive at this point, becoming effective rather than inventive, and the way the Warrens are portrayed makes them bland, too good to be believable characters without much color. While the tone of the film, which wavers between hokey and portentous, doesn't work as well as it did in the original.

That's not to say that the movie doesn't work, because it does. But there's nothing really new here; just a polished, watchable mainstream horror movie with a few memorable sequences. Directed by James Wan.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2016.