Malignant - Quick Take + The James Wan Marathon

 I had a "James Wan marathon" during the afternoon and evening on Saturday, so I'm exhausted. Four movies back to back to back to back is quite an adventure. I used to do marathons with relative ease, but I realize now that unless I'm doing this in October and December, watching so many movies in a day/night just isn't as ideal as it might have been when I was a teenager. 

We -- my wife and teen daughter -- watched the recently-released Wan horror film in 2021 September, Malignant. This film is really being raked over the coals by some for its twist while others consider outrageous but campy fun. I am personally somewhere in the middle. When it turns into a Matrix film inside the Seattle Police Station as "brain face bro" uses a body to massacre practically an entire department of cops and detectives with a "trophy sword", I admit that I laughed out loud at how ridiculous it was. It is warped and certainly original, I'll give Wan and his team that. The "cancer cut out", although not completely, getting "his" revenge on those that tried to "be rid of him" while Maddy (Annabelle Wallis) is incapable of stopping "him" is a plot development that can be spotted with little markers throughout the film but I still got to give it to Wan and his team...they had something a lot different to introduce to us other than demonic entities or Further intruders.

The Seattle Underground scenes were really neat. I am not all that familiar with what Seattle has since I've never been there and only know of the music that comes from there -- and Scarecrow Video is in that city -- but I think the emphasis on CGI graphic violence did sort of leave me really missing the spilled blood of a Sam Raimi or Rob Zombie movie. But the house Maddy lives in just had me envious. I told my wife and daughter that throughout Saturday Wan's films always includes big spacious houses so he can go crazy with his capturing of all that room for the optimum effect. How "Malignant" gives us the mother of Maddy and "Gabriel" I thought was cleverly done. I do credit Wan for at least not holding back in this horror film. I plan to watch this again and go a bit more in depth. Sadly, "Malignant" was a major flop and divisive, with most reviews not particularly kind towards it. Considering what Gabriel is I could see why a lot of hands were thrown up and eyes rolled. I get it. Still, I have to be honest: this was a fucking fun ride.

Warner putting this on HBO MAX did the film no favors. Warner Media has really fucked their filmmakers during the pandemic era.

So watching the first two Conjuring films which I will list below:

The Conjuring (2013)

James Wan's mega-hit, seemingly a great movie for October wisely capitalizing on a summer absent much in the way of theatrical horror, can't shake off its influences, such as Amityville Horror, The Exorcist, Poltergeist (there's a static-screen television), and Paranormal Activity. To me, this was basically Wan's contribution to the 'demonic possession/paranormal activity/haunted house' all the rage these days. 

It concerns a couple in the late 60s/early 70s who would, with the help of a priest and tech crew (well, the cameras and equipment, light bulbs, etc, of that time), research cases of demonic possession for people and cleanse them (or their property) of the horror ailing them. This film features a family of seven under siege by the vengeful spirit of a Connecticut witch lynched on the property (on this creepy tree fit for Sleepy Hollow); this witch possesses mothers and uses them as vessels to kill their children. So the five daughters of the family are in quite a bit of danger, not to mention, their mother will be a possession victim. The house is the real star, to tell you the truth; it looks the part of a 70s Amityville relic (upon '71, the house had aged, with wallpaper, furniture, floor, windows, beds, stairs, a hidden cellar and crawlspace seeming to indicate it had been through years of time's mistreatment, with cob-webbing in the mistakenly discovered cellar and crawlspace indicating more habitation from spiders than humans), and the space involved provides Wan with plenty of room to navigate his camera, following the action of the characters (and spirits) throughout. While using a loud score and sound effects, courtesy of the Hollywood Machine needing to manipulate and manufacture terror from the audience, and descending into The Exorcist Lite, diminishes some of the power of The Conjuring, but the old school, traditional approach is appreciated (especially the use of the dark, and "what lies around that next corner or behind the next door?"). Atheists will probably find this unbearable as plenty of Catholicism (Christian iconography and dialogue) and spirituality find their way in the script and in how the evil is finally put in its place at the end. 

The reason you'll see "The Exorcist" bandied about is mainly because of the end where Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga (Mr. and Mrs. Warren, Demonologist Couple) work to alleviate Lili Taylor's Carolyn Perron of the witch possessing her. The usual crucifixes and holy water show up. Ron Livingston is the trucker husband of Carolyn, Roger, who is feeling helpless in regards to his family's safety. A leg pulled, a demon leaping onto a victim, a victim lifted off her feet by her hair and tossed into a glass-windowed door, the ghost of a maid with slit wrists appearing to scare a guy, a face with flesh ripped away by demon-possessed Taylor, eerie handclaps from a clothing cabinet and in the cellar (ruined by advertisements, leaving the scene without the surprise) during hide and seek games in the house, and Taylor awakened by the witch's spirit while sleeping: in the audience, every one of these moments worked, the theater had people shrieking and freaking out. I give credit where credit's due: Wan builds these scenes, the music helping him (of course), and there's the payoff. If the theater had remained bored and quiet, with phones lighting up and chatting remaining a deterrent, then I would have said The Conjuring was a failure, but the audience was held captivated and spellbound. Whether it was the situation involving a family terrorized by supernatural forces or the gradual escalation of the impending threat itself, The Conjuring worked on the crowd in the theater I saw the film. Too bad the film falls on the sword; Wan's film is reduced to the clichés now so shopworn when it comes to demon possession. The cast is good, though, even if Taylor must work on her best Linda Blair towards the end. Like in Dead Silence, Wan returns to the doll, and there's a marvelous scene where the witch's spirit is creaking in a rocking chair holding the doll, scaring the daughter of the Warrens (yes, another tiresome cliché of the threat towards the heroes' daughter is mined as well). Good opening use of the doll as an introduction to the Warrens, explaining how objects can be used as vessels for evil.

The Conjuring 2 (2016)

I did notice today that Wan made sure to get in shots of double decker buses while filming the story in England. Okay, I've talked about this on the blog, I'm sure. This did introduce the nun demon, Valak, and Annabelle doll, which have spun off some big hits for the Conjuring Universe. This followed the first film's struggling family with kids terrorized by a demonic terror and the Warrens arriving to help them conquer the evil through their spiritual strength. I get that atheists, agnostics, and skeptics, in order to like these movies, would just have to approach them as fiction given cinematic and technical form, through the talents of Wan and his crew, presented effectively through the art of special effects, CGI, sound design, and soundtrack design. And they recreate periods of time in the 70s, using music, wardrobe, and set design that take us into back in like this warp that I admire and applaud. The Crooked Man gimmick (a facade Valak uses, along with William Wilkins, with one incredibly masterful scene that remains my favorite, when Ed turns his back on a little girl consistently tormented in Bill's seat as he speaks to him with Wan blurring the background just enough so that we can tell he is somewhat manifesting himself through her) popped my daughter out of her chair. But the scene where Lorraine sees a shadow walking across the wall to the Nun painting Ed drew from a dream is a serious highlight...I recall this from my theatrical experience.

Insidious (2008)

I did also revisit Insidious (2008) after the family watched "Malignant": the Further "demon" still remains one hell of a creation, with that tongue and tail (and those eye contacts). I watched a lot of Patrick Wilson today. And Lin Shaye frozen in fear after being strangled by the old hag that takes Wilson's body -- she doesn't go away as he yells at her to do, this hideous ghoul has waited a long time to capture his body and leave the Further -- is a haunting image. So any other Insidious movie that still has her, it's hard not to think of the final scene in "Insidious". All the paranormal gadgets Specs and Tucker bring out with Wan's film editing all of them as if weapons prepared for the Further invaders. Bulbs and knobs, cameras coming into focus, and detectors: these guys brought the arsenal. I do appreciate how Wan and company address a criticism towards a lot of haunted house movies: Wilson and Byrne do get the hell out of the first home, only to still inhabit the same terrors as before because the astral projector son is the one with the body used as a conduit for those long dead wanting to use him to access our realm.