Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Malignant.
So you just watchedMalignant. First, I’m gonna ask you to take some deep breaths and drink a glass of water; I have to imagine that after experiencingJames Wan’s utterly bonkers dive into some of the wildest horror ideas committed to cinema in recent memory, you’re a bit tired out. And now that you’re rested and hydrated… it’s time for more.
Malignantis a film that celebrates the horror genre in all its excesses and successes. It references, vibes with, and even parodies a certain historical subset of the genre, leaning into its perceived status as “trashy,” “lurid,” “exploitative,” or even straight-up “bad.” If you want to know more about the kinds of films being riffed on inMalignant— or just want more of its particular brand of high-pressure wildness — we’ve got seven movies to watch afterMalignantto keep those adrenaline levels pumping. One final deep breath, one final check-in to make sure your parasitic tumor demon is kept in your mind prison, and here we go.
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Basket Case
A sublime piece of cult horror trash, 1982’sBasket Caseis rife with bug-nuts practical effects, taboo-busting familial corruptions, and a melange of tones that simply can’t be handled — all by design. Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck) is a nice enough guy trying to get by in New York City. He’s just got one, small secret: an amputated, sentient, flesh mass of a formerly conjoined twin brother, which now lives in Duane’s basket. As Duane tries to protect his brother Belial, find the doctor responsible, and even get a chance at love, Belial starts to curdle into more and more violent acts of aggression and jealousy. Full of gruesome-but-oddly-hilarious kills and campy-but-oddly-emotional explorations of trauma,Basket Caseis an essential watch for those who prefer their films to speed forward with a seemingly unsustainable style, jaws dropped as it manages to sustain it the entire time.
Also known asBraindead,Peter Jackson’sDead Alive(yes, that Peter Jackson) is one of the goriest, funniest, and most wildin' movies you’ll ever see. Mild-mannered Lionel (Timothy Balme) is stuck taking care of his strict, overbearing mother (Elizabeth Moody) — a situation that’s exacerbated when his mother is bitten by a rat-monkey zombie, starting an outbreak of vicious flesh-eaters in their small town. Can Lionel keep these biters at bay, take care of a surprisingly lovable zombie baby, and find some love in the form ofDiana Peñalverin the process? The answer lies at the other end of a 104-minute sprint through barrels of blood, hilariously quotable one-liners, and the most aggressive use of a lawnmower in cinema history. Get a group of friends and howl your way through the audacious, unique, and wholly fucked upDead Alive.
Drag Me to Hell
Malignantcomes to us from James Wan after a period of time in which the director helmed profitable titles in well-known pieces of IP, includingFurious 7andAquaman(not to mention his role in creating the profitable, well-known IP franchises ofSawandThe Conjuring). It’s thus positioned as a kind of “return to form,” an originally batshit horror entry after years of studio-mandated, palatable pieces of mass entertainment.
In 2009,Sam Raimidid the same trick. After a period of time in which Raimi helmed the profitable, well-known IP-basedSpider-Mantrilogy (not to mention his role in creating the profitable, well-known IPEvil DeadandDarkmanfranchises), he returned to form with the original, batshit horror filmDrag Me to Hell. Don’t let the PG-13 rating fool you;Drag Me to Hellis as terrifying, grotesque, and gleefully humorous as you’d want a Raimi flick to be. Its setpieces run rampant with bodily fluids from blood to “demon bile,” it features a goat-demon dancing in horrific joy, and its ending is somehow both a body-rocking twist while also being the only possible thing that could happen. When directors who start in horror return to horror to “get wild,” the results seem to be spectacular.
FeardotCom
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, horror movies shouted at us. Grandstanding, kinetic, grimy, and stylized without an ounce of formal subtlety, works likeHouse on Haunted Hill,THIR13EN Ghosts,Ghost Ship, andGothika(all produced by a seminal company in this sub-genre, Dark Castle Entertainment) took the trappings of classic gothic and giallo horror, chopped it all up into editorial madness, and gave us the visual equivalent of nu-metal — often literally soundtracking their setpieces with nu-metal.
Malignantfeels, from its production design to its soundtrack to its conflation between “action” and “horror,” in dialogue with these kinds of films (not to mention Wan’s own contribution to kinetic, grimy 2000s horror withSaw). All of them are worth your time. But I’d like to draw your attention, specifically, to 2002’sFeardotCom. Many of these films were critically drubbed upon release, only to find a kind of cult reappraisal in modern times.FeardotComcertainly got the former, but is still waiting for the latter. But I, for one, couldn’t help but compareMalignantto this freaky, pulverizing, grim-and-gory serial killer techno-horror-thriller. DirectorWilliam Malone(the aforementionedHouse on Haunted Hillremake) pushes the visual language into a kind of experimental mode, while the plot and set pieces, concerning a haunted website, torturing serial killer, and haunted detective are brutal, nasty pieces of work. You might not get the same sense of “joy” as is found in watchingMalignant, but if you appreciated that film’s interaction with styles of horror filmmaking often derided,FeardotComis about as pure and extreme as you can get.
Wan citedBrian De Palmaasone of the key influences onMalignant, and it’s not hard to see why. Theprovocative filmmakerhas crafted several pieces of entertainment that gleefully mush art and trash together, backflipping off the diving board of respectability into a pool of excess with the craft of an Olympic diver. Many of De Palma’s works will give you thatMalignantfeeling, but his 1972Sistersfeels the most thematically appropriate to recommend. A psychologically driven slasher, the film starsMargot Kidderas a pair of titular sisters, one who is fundamentally decent and trying to get by, and the other who may have some murderous impulses she needs to get out. This violent, perverse, Freudian-on-uppers thriller takes several large turns when we learn the real nature of Kidder’s twins, and while even mentioning this in relation toMalignantlikely gives you an idea, it’s still a particular genre pleasure to see unfold (and an essential piece of horror history to understandingMalignant).
Trauma (1993)
A workdirectly cited by Wan,Traumacomes from one of the masters of the giallo,Dario Argento, though it’s not as well-known as his cited classics likeSuspiriaorDeep Red. Argento’s daughterAsiastars as an anorexic woman in a psychiatric hospital, whose own personal traumas (many related to the malfeasance committed at the hospital) are brought to the surface by a killer targeting the hospital workers. The revelations unfurled in the picture coincide beautifully/grotesquely with the typically ultraviolent style perfected and favored by Argento, turningTraumainto a graphic examination of how people deal with traumas foisted upon them (and I mean graphic; there is one scene involving a baby that is about as wild as you can get). If you dug the first scene ofMalignantand want more of that energy, giveTraumaa spin.
And now, a contemporary genre mindfuck from one of Wan’s buddies and close collaborators,Leigh Whannell!Upgradeblends elements of cyberpunk sci-fi, martial arts action, and dystopian techno-horror into a uniquely appealing film — one that plays with ideas of mental possession spilling over into bodily control, too.Logan Marshall-Greenstars as a man who suffers a horrific accident and is installed with a revolutionary computer chip, one that gives him facilities of his body back… and just might make him a terminating machine of madness, too. As he undergoes a path of revenge, the film indulges in violent, invigorating, and darkly hilarious fight sequences; fluid choreography shot uniquely, with Marshall-Green giving us a quizzical, “I’m not in control” face that punches you in the gut every time. If you dug the beyond-bonkers fight scenes near the end ofMalignantand want more ofthatenergy, take a trip to the future ofUpgrade.
KEEP READING:‘Malignant’ Is Bonkers Horror in the Best Way Possible | Review
