MALIGNANT

James Wan's newest feature tells the story of Madison, a woman who believes she's being haunted by an evil spirit by the name of Gabriel. Madison sees vision's of murders in real-time, desperately attempting to convince the police she's trying to help, rather than committing the crimes herself. However, having so much intimate knowledge of the crimes, she's the cops prime suspect. I'm a fan of both star Annabelle Wallis and director James Wan but this story is too ludicrous to take seriously. The ending is too predictable within the first 20-30 minutes and the film does nothing to hold your interest throughout until you're proven right. Before the midway point, the film is a snoozefest and you're waiting for the credits to roll (in fact, the story becomes somewhat laughable by the third act). No scares in this one but plenty of gore to go around. Wan has proven he can deliver the goods within this genre but this was an extremely bad miss (although I do give him credit for originality). Is that really where we're at in society and fans of the horror genre where we're applauding attempts, rather than the finished product? A hard pass, even for those with HBO Max. 4/10