- Directed by James Wan
- Written by James Wan
- Stars Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young
- Run Time; 1 Hour, 51 Minutes
- Trailer: MALIGNANT – Official Trailer
Non-spoiler Judgment Zone
We both liked this one a lot. It had several surprises, and although we had theories as to what was going on, we were both wrong. That makes it really good in our book. There are massive spoilers below, so go watch it first and then come back.
Synopsis
Dr. Weaver does a video log in 1993, talking about her experiment, and she’s called when “he got out” again. They can’t control the test subject. Bones break, people fly out the door, and light bulbs explode before Weaver shoots it with a tranquilizer dart. She tells the others to strap him into the chair as they clean up the bodies. “You’ve been a bad boy Gabriel,” she yells. The radio comes alive and Gabriel threatens, “I will kill you all.” through the speaker. She didn’t even realize he could speak, as she insists, “Time to cut the cancer out!” Credits roll. During the credits we see text about a child left in their care that can control electricity and has attacked staff before.
In the present day, Madison, who is very pregnant, comes home from work early. Her husband, Derek, is not supportive, as she’s miscarried several times. Then he punches her, and she’s bleeding from the back of the head. He apologizes, but it’s clear that this is a pattern.
That night while sleeping on the couch, Derek is awakened by the kitchen blender, which has come on all by itself. Then the TV goes haywire, and Derek thinks he sees someone on the couch who isn’t there when he turns the light on. But he was there. The phantom then kills Derek. Maddie wakes up. Was that all a dream? No, no it wasn’t; he’s very dead. Then it goes after Maddie, and she’s knocked out in the process.
Suddenly, every cop in the county is there with detectives and helicopters. They’re calling it a home invasion, but the forensics people say this is something special. Shaw, the lead detective, agrees.
Maddie wakes up in the hospital, and her sister Sydney is there with her. They talk for a moment until Maddie notices the baby is gone; she’s lost another one.
Eventually, she recovers enough to go home, but she’s clearly not over it all yet. That night, the streetlights start to blink, and she sees someone standing across the street. Naturally she finds the back door open. Things get crazy, and she runs upstairs and hides.
The next morning, we get a home security montage, as Maddie boards up the windows and puts deadbolts on all the doors. They work so well that Sydney has to crawl in a window. She still thinks if she would have been able to have a baby, things would have been better. Maddie mentions to Sydney that she was adopted and never knew any “real” family.
We cut to a tunnel tour under the city of Seattle. It’s dark and creepy, and some of the lights blink randomly. The tour leader lets everyone out and then hears someone still down in the tunnel. She goes in, and something not-quite human kidnaps her and ties her up in his dungeon. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this,” the radio says. “First, Doctor Weaver.”
Dr. Weaver answers the phone, and it’s Gabriel calling. She starts digging through her old surgical records. Meanwhile, the lights and radio are acting up at Maddie’s house. She finds her head is bleeding, so maybe it’s a hallucination. She watches as the house morphs around her, changing into Weaver’s house, and then she watches Gabriel kill Dr. Weaver with her own trophy. “Time to cut out the cancer,” he says. He wants, “to show you what the cancer has become.”
Maddie explains her vision to Sydney, but it’s pretty hard to believe. Meanwhile, Dr. Fields, who also worked on the Gabriel case, has his own encounter in the dark. Once again, Maddie watches the murder happen in a strange vision. Once again, she finds her head is bleeding. She goes to Shaw and Moss at the police station to explain her visions, but they think she’s lost her mind. Shaw finds a picture of a very young Madison in Weaver’s old files.
Gabriel calls her, and he says her name is Emily. He says he’s going to make “them” pay. They go to see Maddie’s adoptive mother and ask her about any siblings. She does, however, remember the name Gabriel. She shows them a video of Maddie talking to an imaginary friend named Gabriel. She had numerous, terrifying, conversations with Gabriel when she was little.
A third doctor is killed as Maddie watches. Shaw arrives just after his murder and runs into Gabriel. Shaw pursues him down the fire escape and down further into the city’s subterranean tunnels.
Shaw tells Maddie about the doctors and the medical case from before she was adopted. They want her to see the department therapist to help reconstruct her memories. Gabriel did bad things and Maddie always got the blame. He often talked to her on the toy telephone. Gabriel really wanted her to kill Sydney before she was even born. “Wait. Are you saying the killer is your imaginary friend?” asks Detective Moss.
Meanwhile, the girl tied up in Gabriel’s attic gets loose. She falls through the floor, and it was all in the attic of the house where Maddies currently lives. They all see it happen.
They arrest Maddie, since it’s her house. Maddie gets upset, and the light bulbs explode. The phone rings, and Gabriel talks to the police. Maddie used to call him the devil. They lock her up with every female prisoner stereotype since the 70s.
Meanwhile, Sydney looks up the orphanage where Maddie lived, and it’s a huge abandoned castle-like complex on a hill. Naturally, she goes inside alone at night. She finds the records room, and finds a videotape interview with Emily/Maddie’s mother, Serena. She’d been raped and insisted that the baby was an abomination. Serena heard weird voices in her head that told her to do bad things. She thinks he’s the devil. The camera spins around to show us that Gabriel is a parasitic twin, literally growing out of Emily’s back. Dr. Weaver then surgically removed it from her. Gabriel can make Emily see what he sees. Dr. Fields then explains that Gabriel could take over Maddie’s body and control her physically. Yes, Maddie was the killer all along, she just wasn’t in control. They eventually cut out the tumor- they removed what they could and stuffed the rest into her skull. Apparently, when Derek shoved her into the wall, it reawaoke Gabriel.
At the hospital, Shaw finds out the tour guide/victim of Gabriel who fell from the attic, is the same Serena May, Maddie’s mother. Down in the jail cell, Gabriel bursts out of the back of Maddie’s head; he’s in control again. Everyone else in the cell is soon very, very dead, including the cop with the keys to the cell. They’re free! They soon kill every cop in the department in a scene that combines and reminds us of The Matrix, Kingsmen, and The Exorcist all at once.
Shaw and Moss are wounded but alive when Sydney arrives. They come to the conclusion that Gabriel’s mother is the next target. Gabriel confronts Sydney in Serena’s hospital room, but Maddie tries to control him. Serena wakes up and apologizes to Gabriel, but it’s not enough. Sydney explains that Gabriel was the cause of the miscarriages; he was feeding off them.
This pisses off Maddie enough that she tries harder to regain control. He kills Sydney and Serena before Maddie takes over. He hadn’t really killed Sydney or Serena; she’s controlling what he sees now. She locks him in a mental prison, and his physical self recedes into Maddie’s backside.
Commentary
Although it’s clear from early on that Gabriel is out for revenge, we don’t know why until pretty far into the film. The same goes for the mental link with Maddie. Is he real? A monster of some kind? Is Maddie simply an insane telepath? Is it something else entirely? The line about removing the cancer somewhat tipped me off to a “Basket Case” kind of situation, but it didn’t seem likely until it happened. I gotta admit, that for someone who spent the last thirty years as a dormant tumor, Gabriel is awfully spry. And that ending– I’m sure the police won’t charge Maddie with anything, and it’ll all work just fine, right?
The only time I can remember the Seattle sub-city being used in horror was Kolchak: The Night Stalker back in the 1970s. I’m amazed it’s not been used more often, since it’s the perfect nightmare fuel… and it’s a real thing.
The camerawork in this is really noticeably impressive, with several really cool movement and tracking shots. It keeps you guessing until the end, and it’s really, really good.