ANNABELLE WALLIS as Madison in New Line Cinema, Starlight Media Inc. and My Entertainment Inc.’s original horror thriller MALIGNANT, an Atomic Monster production, a Warner Bros Pictures release.

I’ve missed the weird and absurd James Wan that gave us the twists of Dead Silence and created the bonkers energy of the first two Insidious films. Since then, his camera work and staging have been exceptional and oftentimes playful, but the subject matter lacked that absurdity that defined his early 00s filmography. It’s mostly at the script level, since his earlier films were crafted by Leigh Whannel, who consistently turns in silly twists and playful narrative choices. While The Conjuring series has its fans, the stuffy classical nature of it was a far cry from the work he created with Whannel. So it was with immense joy that I discovered that Malignant is downright silly and weird. Weird to the point that it might be Wan’s most bonkers film and carries with it a delightful and mischievous childlike wonder that I haven’t seen in his films in a long time.

In a cold open set in 1993 at the Simion Research Hospital (perched precariously on a cliff that looks like it could be kitty-corner to the giant monstrosity in 1999’s House on Haunted Hill), Dr. Florence Weaver (Jacqueline McKenzie) is trying to document her recent discoveries when everything goes to hell. A patient named Gabriel is tired of being cooped up, flexes some psychokinetic energies to make lights explode and people crash into walls with bloody smears. He gasps at them through a staticky radio that he plans to kill them all, but Dr. Weaver tells him he’s been a bad boy and manages to sedate him before following up with the campy line, “It’s time we cut out the cancer!”

Industrial music takes us to the credit sequence, presented in what seems to be an homage to the horror remakes and Dark Castle cinema that defined early 00s American horror.

Malignant then jumps to the present and introduces a very pregnant Madison (Annabelle Wallis) who pulls up to her delightfully creepy Victorian home. Light exposition explains that she’s miscarried a few times and is married to an abusive man who ends up smashing her head against the wall and is relegated to the couch. That night, something enters the house and, through the kind of visual trickery we’ve come to expect from James Wan’s films, ends up twisting his head completely around. Madison jolts awake and goes downstairs to discover her dead husband but before she can do anything, a creepy, shadowy figure emerges from the darkness behind his twisted head. It then J-horror ghost crawls over his body and pursues her up the stairs in the best The Evil Dead chase camera impression I’ve seen in a long time.

Cut to the police showing up and Detectives Moss (Michole Briana White) and Shaw (George Young) combing over the crime scene while Madison rests in a hospital, overseen by her sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson). While she’s quickly informed that her husband is dead and that she lost her baby, Malignant wastes little time on tears as it jumps two weeks ahead, when Madison is released and returns home. The propulsive pacing doesn’t let up as, that night, she’s chased through her house in a beautifully staged aerial-shot, multi-floored sequence that stages her room-to-room escape as a rat maze (think earlier Zelda games). It only gets weirder and bolder from there. Did I mention that Madison begins to see the killings as if she’s witnessing the killer in media res, like a deliciously inventive take on Eyes of Laura Mars?

Not even twenty minutes in and Malignant is a lot.

(L-R) MADDIE HASSON as Sydney and ANNABELLE WALLIS as Madison in New Line Cinema, Starlight Media Inc. and My Entertainment Inc.’s original horror thriller MALIGNANT, an Atomic Monster production, a Warner Bros Pictures release.

Even though James Wan suggested this was his version of a giallo film, an Italian subgenre of thrillers often associated with aspects of police procedurals mixed with an innocent protagonist who gets roped into (or implicated in) a murder mystery, Malignant isn’t what gialli fans probably expected. Instead, it flirts more with the 80s-style gialli (particularly those of Dario Argento) that combined supernatural elements with the more typical characteristics of the subgenre, like black gloved killers, murder mysteries, outsider protagonists, garish bloodletting, etc. Viewers will obviously see some of those tropes on display in Malignant, but its inspirations are much more vast and varied than that subgenre.

The best way to explain Malignant is to visualize James Wan and his fellow story developers Akela Cooper and Ingrid Bisu walking through a video store and sliding their hands down the horror aisle, knocking a bunch of films into a basket and then checking out. From the films referenced above to more schlocky affairs such as Basket Case and Phenomena, James Wan’s goofy opus pulls from everywhere to make something that feels familiar but also fiercely his own. The screenplay by Akela Cooper brings all of these disparate story choices together with a dash of dark comedy and isn’t afraid to delve into camp aesthetics when things get a little too deranged. The way the script switches the tone and direction without missing a beat is exceptional, as are some of the bonkers set pieces that follow. Malignant is a stylized thrill ride that doesn’t let up throughout the entire 111 minute runtime.

INGRID BISU as CST Winnie in New Line Cinema, Starlight Media Inc. and My Entertainment Inc.’s original horror thriller MALIGNANT, an Atomic Monster production, a Warner Bros Pictures release.

In fact, as the film hurtles towards the climax, I spent a good twenty minutes in slack-jawed amazement at the inventive and bonkers story and action sequences playing out in front of me. While I did figure out most of the plot twists and the what aspect of the story, some of the reveals towards the end had me alternately gasping and cackling in delight. As the mystery gives way to third act resolutions, Malignant exposes the campy, deranged heart beating underneath the murder mystery. I finished Malignant giddy and, frankly, shocked that a major studio greenlit the delicious absurdity on screen.

At times audacious in its humor and gnarly in its gore, Malignant is a celebration of James Wan’s career up to this point. Malignant takes some of the more bonkers storytelling that imbued Dead Silence, mixes the costumes and creepy killer vibes from Saw, the go-for-brokeness of Insidious, the assured strength of The Conjuring and action set pieces of Furious 7 and somehow whips it into a cinematic experience only James Wan could create.