“I always wanted a blood relation,” says Madison to her adopted sister in the final moments of “Malignant,” the latest terrifying concoction from horror titan James Wan.
It’s meant to be a moving emotional crescendo to the film’s bloody conclusion, but the line that follows is just cheesy enough to produce eye rolls, but not so self-aware as to be funny.
The result is a confusing melange of genre archetypes that lacks a clear point of view, even a surface-level stylistic one.A dry seriousness pervades haunts “Malignant” more than any murderous ghoul, though Wan flirts with flair in certain loud choices.
Some — like the most horrific remix of “Where Is My Mind,” sure to offend Pixies fans the world over — wreak of a movie trying way too hard to be hip.
Others, like a bird’s eye view pan of a house as Madison panic-scurries through each
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