10 More Horror Movie Characters Who Didn't Know They Were The Killer

Now, James Wan's Malignant does come with the slight caveat that the protagonist, while absolutely the physical killer throughout the movie, ultimately had their body hijacked by a vestigial part of them.

Throughout Wan's bonkers giallo homage, the central serial killer Gabriel is believed to be protagonist Madison's (Annabelle Wallis) imaginary childhood friend inexplicably come to murderous life.

But in the bats**t third act, we learn that Gabriel was in fact Madison's parasitic twin brother, whose was attached to Madison's back, and though Gabriel's body was surgically removed and the remnants sealed inside Madison's skull, he wasn't totally gone.

When Madison's abusive husband pushed her head against a wall, the resulting fracture "woke" Gabriel, allowing him to take control of Madison's body at will to carry out the killings.

This also explains why "Gabriel" appears to move backwards and has upside-down handprints: given that Gabriel faces backwards out of Madison's head, it only makes sense that he would "pilot" her backwards.

Again, Madison isn't mentally committing the killings herself, but it is her body being possessed to commit heinous murders without her knowledge.