Malignant Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

1. The Bloated Runtime

It's often said that no great movie is too long nor no bad movie too short, but what about those films that fall somewhere in the middle?

Malignant clocks in at a fairly lengthy 111 minutes, which while not inherently off-brand for James Wan - The Conjuring 2 was 134 minutes, after all - does allow the film's limitations to be laid fully bare.

The middle-portion of the movie in particular feels rather bloated and repetitive, and though it's absolutely worth sitting through the first 80-or-so minutes for its bonkers finale, you might feel compelled to check your watch more than once before you get there.

Given the frosty test screening reception, it's surprising that Warner Bros. didn't have Wan cut this down to a breezier 90-100 minutes, but then again, it's entirely possible the test screening version was much longer than this.

Either way, this didn't need to be anywhere close to two hours in length in order to get its point across.

These issues accepted, though, there is a contingent of horror fans who are certainly going to embrace the film. And so, here's everything it gets right...