Pablo O. Scholz
09/09/2021 7:01
Clarín.com
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Cinema
Updated 09/09/2021 7:01 AM
The unconscious.
There, or from there, the best horror films emerge, certainly psychological.
Think of
The Glow
r
, Kubrick.
In
Repulsion
, by Polanski.
Even in
The Sinister Island
, by Scorsese, which was not horror, but horror.
James Wan's
ability
to terrorize us, to generate fear, seems to be innate.
The first
The Game of Fear
was his creation.
He directed the first two of
The Conjuring
.
He is also capable of jumping into the world of DC Comics, like now, which is shooting the sequel to
Aquaman
, which was also his.
But the best thing the Malaysian-born director handles is scare.
The fear.
The horror.
Annabelle Wallis and a presence on her back ... Photo WB
Unlike the films of
The Conjuring
that Wan directed, where the sinister is there, inhabiting a house, in Maligno the possession is in Madison, the protagonist.
And if
he leads us
in
The Conjuring
, and we decide to follow him not with our eyes closed, because we would miss the best, because we know that he will not deceive us, that there will be no false leads and that his path may be winding, but we will always be well guided , in
Maligno
Wan puts blows of effect in a story that brings them to him.
The protagonist had two traumatic abortions, is pregnant and lives in a large house.
Photo WB
Because there is something that, at one point in the plot, will make the viewer be fascinated or say "Naaaaahhh, really?".
Not to complain
But not to complain, because in honor of Hitchcock, Maligno has a pair of
MacGuffins
, that resource of the author of the script to not so much deceive the viewer, but then make a plot twist on that element to which the public did not lend the attention he owed.
Think of many Hitchcock films, or the aforementioned
Sinister Island
.
James Wan and Annabelle Wallis, who was in the first "Annabelle".
Photo WB
Annabelle Wallis, who had already entered Wan's sights when she starred in the first
Annabelle
, is Madison.
And if there is someone - in their right mind - in whom no one would like to be in her shoes, it is her.
She has a complicated pregnancy, after two traumatic miscarriages, and supports a battering partner.
And it is, fair, but fair, after an episode of gender violence that Madison begins to have, let's call it, visions.
Are they the fruit of your imagination?
They are not real.
Red or blue tones predominate in the new film by the Malaysian director.
Photo WB
Madison has a strange power, which is clairvoyance, which connects her with a brutal murderer (
Laura Mars's eyes
, which was written by John Carpenter, perhaps?).
She, as if teleporting to the place where that being kills.
She sees him.
How can it be?
Don't ask me to spoil it for you.
There is a mental sanatorium, almost a mansion, a castle that overlooks a cliff, which is where the film opened.
There are twists and turns in time.
There is a character with a complicated childhood, to say the least.
And a couple of incredulous cops.
Madison and her partner live in the house.
Was it necessary to have a two-story house, with a creaky staircase included?
Photo WB
If the texture of Wan's films, especially the two he directed of
The Conjuring
, were like a trademark, here he opted for blue, dark or reddish tones.
Wan trusted Michael Burgess, who came from directing the photography of
The Conjuring 3
and some derivatives of the saga, but those final decisions were surely his.
The electronic soundtrack is not dissonant, but it squeaks too much, perhaps.
Maddie Hasson ("Twisted") is Madison's sister.
Photo WB
Evil
isn't Wan's best, clearly.
And there is a gothic horror, with some
slasher
and
Italian
giallo
in which Wan drinks - while he continues to pivot between some
Fast and Furious
and the DC blockbusters - with that cinema that comes out the best and that he (and we) like the most .
"Evil one"
Good
Terror / Mystery.
USA, 2021.
Original title:
“Malignant
”.
111 ', SAM 16.
From:
James Wan.
Featuring:
Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young, Michole Briana White.
Rooms:
Hoyts abasto, Cinépolis Avellaneda and Recoleta, Cinemark Palermo, Showcase Belgrano and Norte.
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