Malignant / YMMV - TV Tropes

Broken Base: Many viewers are split as to whether the film's goofy and narmy moments were meant to be intentional or not. While James Wan's style of horror always had slight Narm Charm ever since the first Saw movie, this film had the silly elements cranked up to 11.
Complete Monster: Gabriel is a psychopathic, vestigial twin inhabiting the body of Madison "Emily" Lake. After being imprisoned in the back of Madison's mind during an operation, Gabriel subliminally attempts to direct Madison to commit violent acts, including nearly carving her unborn sister Sydney from her adoptive mother's womb. Replenishing himself by feeding on Madison's fetuses — thus being responsible for her miscarriages — Gabriel pilots her body to exact his bloody vengeance, gruesomely killing the doctors responsible for the operation and massacring his way through a police department to accomplish his final act of revenge unopposed. Gabriel kidnaps his birth mother and holds her hostage, and later forces her to watch him gleefully kill Sydney before finishing her off.
Critical Dissonance: Despite earning a respectable 75% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 52% for the audience, and 67% of Google users like the movie.
Crosses the Line Twice: Gabriel attacking the police station and making mincemeat of the officers? An over-the-top yet terrifying display of power. Him throwing a chair from across the room to hit Detective Shaw? Fucking hilarious.
Draco in Leather Pants: A surprising number of fans see Gabriel in a tragic light due to the horrific circumstances of his birth, being treated like an abomination and locked in the back of his sister's mind since childhood, and believe him to be justified in seeking revenge on his birth mother and the doctors that operated on him. The film, however, makes it abundantly clear that Gabriel is ultimately an evil bastard who delights in the suffering he inflicts on others, has no problem killing people who had nothing to do with the operation that sealed him in Madison's mind, displays no remorse for how his actions have impacted his sister, and shows no interest in even considering the idea of reconciling with his family, even when they express genuine remorse.
Esoteric Happy Ending: Madison succeeds in locking Gabriel back in her mind, thus saving her sister and birth mother. However, this does not change the fact that Gabriel murdered nearly all the officers in the police department and the female inmates. Anyone who was unaware that Gabriel was the actual murderer and not Madison would still think Madison was responsible, though it’s possible security footage and hospital records could exonerate her.
Evil Is Cool: From his coat, custom-made knife made from a trophy, intimidating voice by Ray Chase, his over the top fighting style, his brutal one-sided massacre on the police station, and interesting backstory and powers, Gabriel has made quite the impression on audiences as a badass and unique horror villain.
Friendly Fandoms: With M3GAN. Both films have creepy yet completely ridiculous scares and have a campy tone that makes the movie borderline impossible to really take seriously. Both are considered quite fun experiences nonetheless and feature very entertaining, Evil Is Cool villains. M3GAN's producer, James Wan, also being this film’s director certainly helps too.
Funny Moments:
- After Fields is murdered and Madison describes the location of the murder from her vision, Sydney supports her by telling the detectives that if she is wrong when they go to investigate, they can have Madison committed and slap the cuffs onto Sydney. Not two seconds later does she realize what she said and looks like she is seriously hoping Madison isn't wrong.
- There is also how Madison does a facial composite of the murderer she saw in her visions. Given it barely looks even human, Moss snarks "are we supposed to send off a manhunt for Sloth from The Goonies?"
- Upon arriving to the scene of the police station massacre, a character pulls out her phone before realizing her instinct isn't suited to the scenario: "Why am I calling the cops?"
He Really Can Act: Annabelle Wallis's prior credits in the horror genre, such as The Mummy (2017) and Annabelle are not exactly stellar, but in this film she puts forth a very powerful and effecting performance as The Woobie heroine, not to mention some strong physical acting in certain scenes.
Memetic Mutation:
- "What the fuck!" One of the women in the holding cell witnessing Gabriel's emergence from Madison screams this; an image of the scene quickly became popular with fans as an appropriate reaction to the film's third act.
- Sydney's parking. When Sydney arrives at the Simion Research Hospital, she parks right at the edge of a cliff. This, as well as her complete non-reaction to it, led to some fans mocking her as a terrible driver.
Narm:
- One of the female inmates that antagonizes Madison just before Gabriel comes out is, for some reason, dressed like she just walked right out of a 70's disco movie with an afro and silk bell bottoms. Makes you wonder exactly what she was doing when she got arrested.
- Gabriel's sheer range of Combo Platter Powers (affecting electricity, manipulating Madison's memories and senses, controlling a body to move backwards, superhuman strength, a healing factor, the power to absorb Madison's fetuses) is so varied as to be ridiculous.
Narm Charm: Gabriel's attack in the police station is extremely ridiculous, over-the-top, and more like something you'd see in a superhero movie. That doesn't stop it from being completely awesome.
Older Than They Think:
- Being a gory film about someone with a murderous alter ego with Psychic Powers, awakened by abuse, which can physically manipulate their body to go on rampages against their enemies, Malignant could be considered a slasher-themed Spiritual Adaptation of an early arc of Go Nagai's old manga Susanoo. Amusingly, Gabriel's second face also echoes Nagai's Author Appeal to draw monsters with extra faces in their bodies.
- As an odd curiosity, when Andoni Garrido got to watch the film, he found it bizarrely similar to a script project he made and registered back in the early 2010s when he finished a scriptwriting course, which some Spanish producers were interested on but never really took up. He ultimately considered it a Contrived Coincidence, though.
One-Scene Wonder: Veteran stuntwoman Zoë Bell as the trash talking and street talking Lower-Class Lout cellmate and apparent ringleader of the inmates who assaults Madison while she is Chewing the Scenery. Also, there's the Sassy Black Woman in the afro with Bell's character.
Shocking Moments: The reveal that Gabriel is a malformed twin who lived in Emily's back. Sydney understandably screams in horror.
Signature Scene: Gabriel's attack on the police station, which has drawn praise for its extremely inventive choreography as well as James Wan's now-signature kinetic cinematography.
Special Effects Failure: As impressive as Gabriel's rampage in the holding cell and the police station is during the climax, it's still pretty glaring that the stuntperson doing the scene is wearing a prosthetic mask resembling Annabelle Wallis' face, or at least having it digitally inserted in the back of their head, just by looking closely at how lifeless and fake it looks.
Spiritual Successor:
- The movie being a gory thriller about power borne of mental trauma 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 Split.
- In The Kill Count and Half in the Bag, James A. Janisse and Jay Bauman liken the film to a remake of Basket Case, due to their similar plots and campy, over the top nature.

YMMV / Malignant

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