James Wan's Latest Remarks About Malignant Will Have Horror Fans Losing It

While James Wan has branched out into new genres in recent years with titles like"Fast and Furious 7" and "Aquaman," the director will always be known for his contributions to horror. Directing the 2004 body horror classic "Saw" would probably be enough for Wan to rank among the all-time great horror directors, but he's also responsible for kicking off both the "Insidious" and "The Conjuring" franchises. Now, Wan's latest film, the upcoming "Malignant," sounds like it will be another worthy addition to Wan's resume.

"Malignant" is about a woman named Madison, who first began seeing an imaginary friend named Gabriel shortly after she was adopted. As an adult, Madison's visions become more and more disturbing, and Gabriel himself turns out to be, you guessed it, much more malignant than she thought. Based on the "Malignant" trailer, it looks like a quintessential supernatural thriller. 

However, based on Wan's recent comments, it sounds like "Malignant" will be a bit more than just another ghostly scare-fest. If you're a fan of classic horror, especially of the 80s and 90s vintages, it sounds like you'll be in for a treat.

Wan talked about "Malignant" at a press conference in the run-up to the movie's premiere (via CBR.com).

"When people ask me how to describe this film, I say it's a genre bender, but then the more correct way of describing it would be a genre blender, and the blender is my head, and all the stuff that I've filtered all through the years, growing up with all these filmmakers that I love, and this is the output of that blending," Wan said. "[Sam] Raimi is in there. [David] Cronenberg, [Asia] Argento, [Mario] Bava and [Brian] De Palma as well. It's a combination of things, and it's hard for me to sort of pinpoint it to one person, per se."

Wan also talked about the overall vibe he wanted "Malignant" to have. "When people ask me, 'What is the feel of the film?' or 'How would I describe it in a way where I don't describe the story?', I would say it's the kind of movie for me when I was growing up in the late '80s and early '90s where I would go to the video store," Wan continued. "We would travel all the way to the back of the video store to the horror section, and we'll go even deeper than that to the back shelves of the horror section, and the movie that we will pull out will be this film that we would have never seen before, but it has a cool cover. We've never heard of it, and I want 'Malignant' to be that movie."

If you're an avid horror fan who's seen all the classics multiple times, there's nothing better than that moment Wan is talking about, when you stumble upon an undiscovered gem. Hopefully "Malignant" can live up to the hype.

"Malignant" premieres on September 10, 2021 in theaters.