Childhood’s End
Will James Wan’s Malignant be a sight for Saw eyes?
JAMES WAN IS returning to his roots. A modern master of horror, Wan hasn’t directed a non-sequel fright flick since 2013’s The Conjuring. That’s all about to change with the original creepy thriller Malignant. As the architect responsible for the successful Saw, Insidious and Conjuring franchises, Wan, however, warns that audiences should not expect the same bag of spooky tricks from him this time.
“I’m a big fan of the haunted house subgenre, but I felt like I had done all that I could do in that genre,” Wan tells Red Alert. “I felt like I had contributed as much as I could to that world, and it was time for me to try something different. My mind always gears to ’80s prosthetic horror films, like the kind of films Cronenberg made and John Carpenter with The Thing. There’s Nightmare On Elm Street and even slasher films like Friday The 13th and Halloween. I was like, ‘Okay, I hadn’t played in this particular arena in a horror genre yet, I should give it a shot’.”
Malignant stars The Mummy’s Annabelle Wallis as Madison, a troubled young woman experiencing eerie visions of grisly murders that turn out to be real.
Even more disturbing is the fact that her imaginary childhood friend, Gabriel, may be behind the carnage. Or is he?
“Again, it’s me harkening back to movies like Eyes Of Laura Mars,” Wan says. “It really is my take on the subgenre that came up in the ’80s and early ’90s, where there were a bunch of movies where you follow these protagonists, who for some reason, are seeing visions of the killer doing all these bad things. Naturally, we wanted a character you could identify with and sympathise with, who is going through all this crazy stuff.
“At the same time, it plays with the psychological aspect of it as well, which is whether she is actually seeing these things or is she going crazy,” he continues. “Is she really seeing a killer out there doing these horrible things, or is she the one doing them? That’s part of the fun, trying to work out what is going on.”
Details on Gabriel’s true identity remain shrouded in secrecy… and Wan plans to keep it that way. But moviegoers familiar with his filmography and collections of fiends – Jigsaw, Mary Shaw, Lipstick-face Demon and the Conjuring Universe ghouls – can rest assured that Wan has designed a nightmarish new evil.
“I’m not going to say what the villain is with this, but we’ve cooked up something pretty messed up as well,” Wan promises. “It’s pretty memorable. It’s not easy to come up with stuff that sticks in people’s heads. For me, it really is about coming up with these characters that accomplish that. What is it about this thing that I am trying to create that scares me or disturbs me? I really wanted the villain of Malignant to be shocking.”
Wan’s reputation precedes him – in a way that’s evolved. Thanks to Saw, he was slapped with the “torture porn” label. After scratching his haunted house itch with Dead Silence and The Conjuring, he became the guy who built haunting set-pieces that lead up to jump scares. For Malignant, Wan insisted on stripping away those tropes.
“For better or for worse,
I set out to make a movie that is an antithesis to all my other films,” he says. “If people are going to this expecting the kind of scares they see from my Insidious or Conjuring movies, they are going to be disappointed. This movie, I wanted it to be a traditional investigative thriller that just so happens to have violent, action set-pieces. It’s more of an action-thriller than anything. It’s a pleasure for me to play with prosthetic effects that I’ve never really played with before on this level. So, it’s more of a blood and guts, gory movie from the ’80s than it is more of a quiet haunted house movie.”
As mentioned, Wan has become synonymous with horror franchises. Saw spawned nine feature films and may generate more. The Conjuring Universe has generated more than a billion dollars worldwide. And actor Patrick Wilson will be helming the upcoming fifth instalment of Insidious. So, if fans demand it, could Malignant show similar legs with multiple sequels?
“It’s kind of a tricky question,” Wan says. “Ultimately anything can become a franchise. They will find a way. Look at Saw. When Leigh Whannell and I made Saw, we were like, ‘Jigsaw gets up and he shuts the door. The end.’ Then when the movie did so well, the producers and studio were like, ‘Guys, we have to make another one.’
“So, yes, Malignant could become a franchise, but I set out to just make this movie,” he concludes. “Having said that, when I make one film, I do think of a bigger umbrella story. I’m always just telling a section of this bigger story.” BC
Malignant is in cinemas now.
For better or for worse, I set out to make a movie that is an antithesis to all my other films