The best kind of movies are the ones that stick with you in one way or another. I've long felt that the worst thing a piece of entertainment can be is forgettable, and in that way Malignant definitely succeeds. While a good portion of reviews and comments I've seen from people in regards to this movie boil it down to "this sucked" or the like, what I think a good deal of people are missing out on here is the meta narrative at play.
For the first hour or so, this movie plays out exactly as you'd expect any run-of-the-mill supernatural horror movie might, with awful sound editing, spoooooky dark visuals, and all the other usual cliches firmly in place. But when that final act bursts in, everything you've seen beforehand begins to re-contextualize in the most maddening way, really putting the audience in the unique position of having to decide for themselves how much they're willing to give the movie in return for their time. Watching this movie at home on HBO with my wife, I was probably driving her nuts as I loudly pointed out all the issues I was having with it for about 80 minutes, after which I found myself laughing even harder both at the movie and myself for the trick it pulled on me. Is this a brilliant movie or a terrible one? Why not both?
