History Film / Malignant

* AnachronismStew: One of the female detainees at the prison is inexplicably dressed like she was just at a [=1970s=] disco party.

* WhamShot: [[spoiler:When Sydney and Jeanne watch the video of Madison as a child in the hospital, the camera pans over to behind Madison, revealing Gabriel’s true nature as a parasitic twin.]]

** In an even more horrific sense, there's [[spoiler:Gabriel himself. What remains of his twisted face emerge ''through a split in the back of Madison's skull, along with a good portion of her brain.'' His face itself is merely a snarling, misshapen mouth and eyes that are set at haphazard angles.]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: The movie being a gory thriller about power borne of mental trauma [[spoiler: involving multiple identities inhabiting the same body and having slight touches of a superhero origin story towards the end]] has drawn comparisons to M. Night Shyamalan's Film/{{Split}}.

* BadassLongcoat: Gabriel acquires himself a longcoat early in the movie and wears it whenever he's murdering about. Notably, it has a high collar [[spoiler: which obscures Madison's face until TheReveal]]

* NotSoImaginaryFriend: Throughout the film, Gabriel is [[RedHerring implied]] to be Madison's childhood imaginary friend come to life. TheReveal is that[[spoiler: he's Madison's sapient parasitic twin who, when they were 7, was surgically removed aside from piece of his brain that couldn't safely be removed from Madison's own brain.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Madison's boyfriend is introduced lying on his bed in the middle of the day watching what appears to be a montage of UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts ground-and-pound stoppages. Yes, he quickly proves to be a no-good brute.

-->[[spoiler:'''Jeanne:''' (''after seeing the videotape of Serena May’s interview at the hospital'') They told me that she died while giving birth. Those lying cock-knockers…]]

-->'''Sydney:''' [[spoiler:What did you do to my sister?!]]
'''Gabriel:''' [[spoiler:SHE’S NOT YOUR SISTER! She chose you over me! Her own flesh and blood! I should have killed you before you were born!]]

-->'''Gabriel:''' [[spoiler:She chose you over me! Her own flesh and blood! I should have killed you before you were born!]]

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Dr. Weaving conflates parasitic twins (where an embryo does not fully separate into twins, but rather than developing into conjoined twins, one half maintains dominant development over the other) and teratomas (a type of tumor composed of diverse tissue types, such as hair, teeth, muscle and bone). While there is ''some'' belief that fetus in fetu teratomas ''might'' represent a form of parasitic twin, that is not accepted medical fact, and even ''if'' one were to accept that [[spoiler:Gabriel is a parasitic twin teratoma]], that is a ''far'' cry from being a [[spoiler:fully sapient conjoined twin that can survive the surgery that was meant to remove him.]] To say nothing of the fact that [[spoiler:pushing Gabriel's face, which retains enough skull that he still has ''teeth'', into Madison's cranium and sealing it back up, would probably have a negative prognosis for Madison in the long term at least.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Hints at Gabriel's true nature are scattered before TheReveal; in particular, when he picks up [[spoiler: the trophy to kill Dr. Weaver, his hands, and the fact that they're oriented backwards, are center-frame.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Madison's boyfriend is introduced lying on his bed in the middle of the day watching what appears to be a montage of MixedMartialArts ground-and-pound stoppages. Yes, he quickly proves to be a no-good brute.

* BullyingADragon: A group of holding cell prisoners beat and harass Madison after she enters police company, unaware that [[spoiler:she has a homicidal monster dwelling inside her body. Cue a massacre.]]

* FacialHorror: The death of [[spoiler:Dr. Fields]], who gets stabbed in the face repeatedly until it resembles a bloody crater.

* {{Giallo}}: Has elements of one: Striking visual palette with lots of red, [[PoliceAreUseless the police being mostly incompetent]], lots of graphic violence with the killer using an unusually sharp and gaudy object against their victims, a helpless female protagonist tortured on both fronts by the main antagonist, tons of MoodLighting, Gabriel using a ConspicuousTrenchcoat as part of his outfit, the protagonist having visions of the murderer, an old abandoned building hiding terrible secrets -- many of the tropes are here through and through.

%%* ParasiticHorror

* NotSoImaginaryFriend: throughout the film, Gabriel is [[RedHerring implied]] to be Madison's childhood imaginary friend come to life. TheReveal is that[[spoiler: he's Madison's sapient parasitic twin who, when they were 7, was surgically removed aside from piece of his brain that couldn't safely be removed from Madison's own brain.]]
* PlotArmour: Detective Shaw has a pretty egregious case of this in some action scenes.

* RedHerring: Throughout the movie there are many hints that [[spoiler:Gabriel is a formerly conjoined twin of Madison who survived the surgery and is now a separate person, or alternatively a ghost {{Poltergeist}} following Madison. Neither proves to be true, as all that is left of Gabriel is a part of his brain in Madison’s head, and the injury in the beginning of the movie enabled him to [[EnemyWithin control]] her.]]

* StealthParody: Some have speculated (including ''WebVideo/RedLetterMedia'') that the movie may have been a practical joke by director James Wan, as the the first two acts of the film are rather dark and spooky like Wan's most well known films such as ''Film/TheConjuring'', but then [[spoiler:the third act goes off the rails into over the top actiony violence with a rather bizarre looking villain (Madison's conjoined twin Brother who is literally sticking out of the back of her head) and multiple out of place looking extras such as the woman who looks like she just walked out of a 70s disco with a giant afro to boot. It's certainly a tonal whiplash.]]

* {{Giallo}}: Has elements of one: Striking visual palette with lots of red, [[PoliceAreUseless the police being mostly incompetent]], lots of graphic violence with the killer using an usually sharp and gaudy object against their victims, a helpless female protagonist tortured on both fronts by the main antagonist, tons of MoodLighting, Gabriel using a ConspicuousTrenchcoat as part of his outfit, the protagonist having visions of the murderer, an old abandoned building hiding terrible secrets - many of the tropes are here through and through.

* StealthParody: Some have speculated (including [[WebVideo/RedLetterMedia]]) that the movie may have been a practical joke by director James Wan, as the the first two acts of the film are rather dark and spooky like Wan's most well known films such as [[Film/TheConjuring]], but then [[spoiler:the third act goes off the rails into over the top actiony violence with a rather bizarre looking villain (Madison's conjoined twin Brother who is literally sticking out of the back of her head) and multiple out of place looking extras such as the woman who looks like she just walked out of a 70s disco with a giant afro to boot. It's certainly a tonal whiplash.]]

* BadassLongcoat: Gabriel acquires himself a longcoat early in the movie and wears it whenever he's murdering about.

* PsychoElectro: Gabriel can weaponize his KillTheLights power, including [[spoiler: causing a guard's pacemaker to explode.]]