Part of why you don't see The Conjuring on my list in the previous paragraph is because I put off watching that movie for years. But where it really succeeds is a layer of shocking unexpectedness that only comes from someone who really knows what they're going for, and kind of nails it? While Malignant is creepy, and weird, and certainly has some scary imagery, it isn't particularly scary (though it does have a handful of jump scare moments). So as soon as I learned that Malignant would be available to stream on HBO Max (in addition to its premiere in theaters) I got excited for a Saturday night of trying to scare myself. I'm a horror nut I'd probably count John Carpenter's original Halloween, along with Ari Aster's Midsommar, Jordan Peele's Get Out, Wes Craven's Scream, and of course Stanley Kubrick's The Shining all along my favorite films-not even just horror films, but favorite films in general-of all time. Night Shyamalan's Old in theaters but it was a pretty vague horror trailer, not divulging too many details, and given that Old itself was horror, between other similar trailers and a whole twisty feature film, I didn't exactly retain anything the Malignant trailer hinted at. I'd seen a trailer about a month and change earlier, before watching M. I was going into the movie relatively blind-as I'd recommend anyone who hasn't yet seen itto do. Let's just fill in with some pretty quick background before we dive into the bonkers madness of Malignant. With Malignant, the latest horror film from director James Wan ( Saw, The Conjuring, Insidious) I didn't totally expect what was coming right off the bat, but it didn't take long for me to think I had a pretty good idea. This doesn't always mean that something is going to be bad, but it can start to happen pretty early in a viewing experience. And sometimes it can happen pretty early. And when you've taken in a lot of genre, unfortunately, you start to get a pretty good read on where stories are going. I've seen a lot of sci-fi, adventure, fantasy, and so on-as they say, genre-movies and shows. The following story contains spoilers for the new horror movie Malignant, from director James Wan.įolks, I've seen a lot of horror movies.

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