James Wan, you have done it again. Malignant, a film directed by James Wan, follows the story of Madison Lake (played by Annabelle Wallis), most famous for her role in the Annabelle movie series.

Madison Lake seems like a normal woman who is living a pretty normal life, but her dreams are haunting her and are slowly making their way into her reality.

I will give a warning: this film is rated R for violence and gore, and I can confirm that it doesn’t disappoint in the terror aspect — this is one of the most terrifying movies I’ve seen in a long while. In my opinion, this movie is more terrifying than something like The Conjuring, IT, or Insidious, which I would say are some of the scariest movies of the last 15 years. 

James Wan directs this film and does an absolutely fantastic job. Even though the film has quite a unique story, James Wan elevates it into something I didn’t even imagine was possible. It seemed like a story that couldn’t be told in movie form, but was done very well. James Wan is best known for directing The Conjuring movies, which in my opinion are very good. He also directed the first SAW, as well as the Aquaman movies.

This movie is absolutely bonkers, with all of the twists and turns that make for an absolutely amazing piece of cinema. 

It was officially released on Sept. 10, 2021. Though it bombed at the box office, most films did because their was still a pandemic going on for the majority of 2021. It made 35 million USD and their budget was 40 million USD, so it wasn’t very successful in theaters, but a lot of people have been talking about it recently, since it was released on streaming services.

As of Sept. 29, 2022 it is available to stream on HBO Max with a subscription, as well as Hulu and Sling TV with a premium subscription for both. It is also available to buy on many platforms.

The cinematography was fine; it was nothing really that special. The special effects and makeup department, on the other hand, deserve an award for their terrific job on this movie. There is one point where they did a great job with how terrifying and scary the villain was, which really added to the movie overall.

The score was composed by Joseph Bishara, who has done many horror movie scores before. It was amazing as usual, and I would say it is the reason why I liked this film so much. The score is usually my favorite part of a movie, but with this one, it was just a nice addition without the rest of the film depending on the music alone… such as with most Marvel movies. Yeah, I said what I said.

It has a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is solid, but has an audience score of 52%. The IMDb score is 6.2/10 on average. It has an average rating of 3.1/5.

This movie is an interesting one, with a plot who’s ideas probably won’t ever be tried again, just because they’re so far-fetched. The story is unmatched, even when compared to the craziest, most weird horror plots out there.

With that said, I recommend this film for anyone who is into horror, gore, and interesting plotlines. You’ll probably think it’s unique and a fun watch, just like I did.

My rating for this movie is an 8.9/10.