James wan is one of the most influential and original directors in the horror field, and he just made his comeback with a new film, Malignant. Malignant is produced by New Line Cinema which is a part of larger Warner Bros Entertainment. And the partnership between the production company and the director is not new, as he has directed many movies, including “The Conjuring 1 & 2” for New Line Cinema, kick-starting that franchise, and “Aquaman” for the larger Warner Bros. It’s worth mentioning that the Conjuring franchise has grossed more than a billion in the worldwide box office, while “Aquaman” itself is in the billion dollars club. James Wan has also acted as a producer for the recent reboot of Mortal Kombat, which is the most successful HBO MAX release with 5.5 million in its first three days.
So, it is clear that James Wan is a very valuable figure for the studio with his ability to deliver on both artistic and business levels. For that reason, the studio entrusted a 40-million-dollar budget for Malignant in hopes of potentially having another hit horror film. That’s a lot of money given for such an experimental and mind-bending flick, and it shows the trust in the director. But considering all the previous hits from James Wan, who made Warner Bros his home at this point, it was a sure bet for the studio.
But let’s talk about the movie now, which is full of twists and turns. So, this is your spoiler warning! The story is about a pregnant woman, Emely, who starts having visions about people getting murdered after her husband pushes her head into a wall. But she quickly finds out that the visions are real. After revelations about her past, we learn that Emely was a child of a 15 years old rape victim and born with a teratoma, a parasitic twin, who shared a part of her brain and body. A teratoma is a parasitic tumor made up of different types of tissue. He was named Gabriel. And after Emily’s head injury, Gabriel was awakened and started taken control of Emily’s body to murder people. I should also mention that Emely had many miscarriages, and their cause is a mystery to us. It’s an exciting concept with incredible visuals to go alongside.
The idea for Malignant came from Wan himself and his wife, Ingrid Bisu. Wan explains how Ingrid is very into researching medical anomalies, and she was the one who introduced him to the concept of teratomas. Wan took the idea and built a story around it for Malignant. Then the screenplay was written by Akela Cooper and J. T. Petty. Wan also talks about how he was excited to make the movie as old school as possible by using practical effects and animatronics. This was one of his motivations to make the movie.
For the film’s structure, Wan explains that he first uses familiar ones to make the audience comfortable. Wan made Malignant look like a murder mystery and a detective movie at first, the type of movie that you are familiar with and know what to expect, so you don’t think about it too much and get into it. But then he pulls the rug under your feet by revealing his cards and gets that effect of surprise! On my first watch, I also thought that this would be yet another horror movie with ghosts and mystery, but the opening scenes fooled me. After that, it turned into something completely different with each revelation. And the final twist made the journey worth my while.
Another interesting point about the story is that the teratoma was ironically named Gabriel, the name of an archangel in the Abrahamic religions, the complete opposite of the one in the movie. He is deemed the “devil,” and at some point, the pregnancy with a child at an early age, the child partly being Gabriel, gets called “transgression against God.” However, there are some unexpected parallels and possible meanings behind the naming choice. The archangel Gabriel is also described as the guardian angel of Israel, defending its people against the angels of other nations. The movie Gabriel “guards” Emely by first killing her abusive husband and then going on a murder spree of the doctors helping Emely with her twin in the past. Gabriel is also translated as “strength of God” in some languages, directly connecting to our movie character. When Gabriel takes over Emily’s body, he seems much stronger and powerful.
To conclude, in my opinion, the movie is about the personification of traumas in the form of a physical entity, which haunts our protagonist until she takes charge and acknowledges her power. She goes through the journey of selfdiscovery with her family. The movie subtly sends a message about traumas from the past reemerging and making our lives a living hell, literally in the case of Emely. She finally fights back Gabriel, her past traumas, with the aid from her sister and by finally understanding that all those years Gabriel was the one who contributed to her miscarriages, meaning her life problems. I liked the movie and its atmosphere, especially the director’s bold choices and how he took risks with this movie. Even though the studio has sought out only the financial benefit from Malignant, its intellectual value is far more extensive for the horror genre and its viewers.
