Malignant • Film Board Member Bonus

James Wan had said he was wanting to do something different with Malignant. He did. But does it work?

Director James Wan had mentioned that Malignant would be more in lines with Italian giallo films than what he’d done with his previous work like Saw, Insidious, or The Conjuring films. (While we’ve never discussed any of his films on our podcasts before, we did recently talk about The Conuring: The Devil Made Me Do It which he produced. Click here to hear that episode.) He’s also said it’s an ode to 80s horror films and body horror. To a certain extent, he achieves what he’s setting out to do, but the film also fails because it breaks its own rules and creates too many disconnects between the various callbacks.

On this episode of The Film Board – our special September member bonus episode for all of our beloved members out there – Andy Nelson returns to the head of the table – filling in for Ocean Murff – with Pete Wright, Steve Sarmento, and Tommy Metz III joining in to take Wan head-on in our conversation about Malignant. What’s perhaps most surprising is who connects with this film and who doesn’t!

So does this new direction for Wan work? Or can he get figure out how to make a strong horror movie of another type while still making sure the script works? What do we think of the predictable script for Malignant? How do the third act effects work for us? And what were they doing with the repeated use of The Pixies “Where Is My Mind?”.

We have a great conversation in the boardroom about Malignant. Check out the movie then tune in! This is a member bonus episode, so consider becoming a member so you can tune in to this and others like it.

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Film Sundries

• Watch this film: HBOMax • JustWatch
• Original theatrical trailer
• Original poster artwork
• Flickchart
• Letterboxd