The Surprising Scene In Malignant That Had Fans Howling With Laughter

Contains spoilers for "Malignant"

If you are at all familiar with the work of director James Wan, you know that, in the 2010s, he became synonymous with a very specific type of horror movie — ones with haunted houses, haunted people, and haunted realms. Beginning in 2010, Wan set the tone with "Insidious," a movie where a small boy's soul is kidnapped from his body and taken to a place called "The Further." That movie spends much of its first two acts building tension with some jump scares but mostly unsettling imagery — and then act three takes us to The Further and things go absolutely bonkers.

Both with "Insidious" and Wan's other main franchise, "The Conjuring," this formula holds true, and the brief ads for his latest horror film, "Malignant" made it seem like it would be more of the same. "Malignant" bears little to no resemblance to Wan's 2010s work — instead, it starts audiences at a full 10 and then takes them into the stratosphere of gonzo filmmaking with each passing moment straight through to the end.

Yes, the film follows Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis), a woman who seems to be haunted by a mysterious (and murderous) figure named Gabriel, but who Gabriel is and the connection between him and Madison is unlike anything we've ever seen from Wan before. Furthermore, there is a particular moment that is so entirely off-the-wall that it has audience-goers rolling in the aisles.

Have you seen "Malignant?" If not, we highly advise you check it out before finding out the twist. For those of you who have gotten to enjoy the absolute madness that is the final act of "Malignant," then you know exactly when the pivot point happens — the jail cell. As our other characters are clued into Madison's secret past, the one that involves her malignant tumor/conjoined twin Gabriel being mostly removed from her body, we witness the full-on body horror of Gabriel's face breaking through Madison's skull so that he can take control and kill basically everyone in sight.

When legendary stunt performer Zoë Bell (who is in the cell with Madison/Gabriel) says "What the —-?!" the roller coaster ride that is "Malignant" goes from rising action to careening at top speed in an instant. But the moment that has audiences doubling over with laughter comes after Gabriel wipes out an entire jail cell of hard luck women.

Gabriel spends much of the next ten minutes absolutely ripping through the entire police precinct, making sure no one gets away unscathed. "Gabriel yeeting the chair across the room and taking out both the cops as they were trying to limp out of the room had me rolling," writes one reddit user. "Also Gabriel kicking a hole in the wall during the chase sequence, then backwards crawling through it," replies u/theAangstykid. "James Wan knew he was going to make a bunch of people laugh with that —-."

In the tradition of movies like "Dead Alive" and "Army of Darkness," James Wan takes "Malignant" to a point of slapstick violence so extreme it's impossible not to laugh sadistically at least a little bit.

"Malignant" is in theaters and streaming on HBO Max now.